Draft National Teacher Workforce Action Plan Released
The federal government’s draft National Teacher Workforce Action Plan (the Action Plan) to address widespread teacher shortages has been released for public consultation.
The Action Plan has been developed as a result of the Teacher Workforce Working Group (the Working Group) discussions of which the IEU has been an active participant.
The Working Group was established in August 2022 to work on solutions to address the current workforce shortages by helping to attract and retain more people in the teaching profession.
IEU Federal Secretary Christine Cooper said our union has welcomed these collaborative discussions and the government’s commitment to work with teaching practitioners on these long-standing problems.
“With the Action Plan now released for public consultation, it is critical members assess the proposals against the reality they live every day in their classrooms, and the meaningful changes needed across our schools,” Ms Cooper said.
Draft Action Plan: important inclusions and priority areas
The draft plan is based on six priority areas:
- Elevating the profession
- Improving teacher supply
- Strengthening initial teacher education
- Maximising the time to teach
- Better understanding future workforce needs
- Better career pathways and support for teachers
Ms Cooper said teachers will be looking to the plan to promote tangible outcomes within each of the priority areas.
More work to be done - final outcomes must deliver real change in our classrooms
The IEU believes the six draft priority areas warrant inclusion.
“Our union has also reiterated to the Working Group that the final plan must be about more than simply trying to attract new teachers,” Ms Cooper said.
“More work will be needed to deliver a final plan that tackles the underlying causes of staff shortages.
“The long-term success of any plan must include consideration and action on unsustainable workloads, teacher burnout, stagnating pay and insecure short-term contracts.
“The federal government does not employ any teachers and the draft Action Plan is not an industrial instrument that regulates wages or conditions.
“However, the plan should provide a framework and a stronger commitment by employers to increase their investment in wages and workload relief.
“Our union will now work through the 28 proposed actions to ensure this becomes a reality,” she said.
Members’ voice must be heard
Ms Cooper said members’ stories and classroom experiences must continue to be heard.
“With the public consultation process open until 1 December 2022, our union will be undertaking a range of member consultation measures as well as direct feedback forums with the Department of Education.
“This is a once in a decade opportunity for government and employers to drive the widespread reforms needed in our schools and early childhood education communities – staff and students have waited long enough,” Ms Cooper said.