President Writes by Henry Rajendra: Education Quarterly, Issue 17 2026
Over the past month, I’ve been privileged to stand alongside hundreds of teachers in the regions as we campaign for two additional hours of preparation time each week. The support of our members has been powerful, but the depth of understanding and solidarity from parents and the broader community has been just as inspiring.
Parents get it. They understand that teachers’ working conditions are their children’s learning conditions. They feel teachers deserve adequate time to prepare quality lessons, support individual students and address the increasingly complex needs in today’s classrooms.
The conversations I’ve had with parents in these communities revealed many have teachers in their immediate families or social circles. They see firsthand the work that happens after school hours, during
holidays and on weekends. They know about the materials purchased from teachers’ own pockets, the late nights marking and planning, the emotional labour of supporting students facing challenges teachers never encountered a generation ago.
What moved me most was hearing parents articulate, unprompted, that improving working conditions for teachers are central to improving education.
These parents and their children are living the modern classroom reality: a 75 per cent increase in students with disability since 2021, with 86 per cent of these students learning in mainstream settings. They see the cultural and linguistic diversity, the varying learning needs, the mental health challenges. They recognise that supporting this diversity requires good intentions paired with adequate time to plan, prepare and individualise learning.
The response to our campaign has reinforced what we’ve always known: this is an educational equity issue. Parents across all school communities agree that every child deserves access to first-class education. They understand that achieving this requires teachers who aren’t running on empty.
We have powerful allies in our school communities, but we need to do more to ensure they understand both the progress we’ve achieved together and the work still to be done. We all want to see continued investment in public education and measures that genuinely improve learning outcomes.
What my interactions with community members have reinforced is that our campaign for preparation time stands on solid ground. It aligns with what parents value: educational equity, teacher wellbeing and quality learning for every student. It acknowledges the reality of today’s classrooms rather than pretending we can deliver 2026 education with 1950s time allocations.
The employment of permanent teachers is clearly key to delivering additional preparation time — and the news is favourable. Courtesy of the historic pay rise we achieved with the Minns Government in 2023, teacher shortages are at their lowest level in more than a decade and there has been a significant increase in those entering initial teacher education courses.
As we continue this campaign, we do so knowing that our message resonates beyond our staffrooms and into the broader community. Parents understand that when we fight for adequate preparation time, we’re fighting for their children’s education. It’s a powerful alliance and one we must keep nurturing as we push for the change our students and our profession desperately need.
The question now isn’t whether this reform is necessary — parents, teachers and educational research all
confirm it is.
The Minns Government has shown decent commitment to starting the job on education reform. Now we must persuade them that it’s in everyone’s interest to see it through.