Teachers cite violent, abusive behaviour among growing list of things making their jobs harder

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The OECD says Australian teachers work longer hours and receive less competitive salaries compared to other similarly educated professions, which is contributing to a nationwide teacher shortage.

Transcript

00:00Well, it certainly reflects the stories that we hear from our membership across the country.

00:08Unsustainable workloads are a significant problem. It's pretty common for people to

00:12be working on average about a 50-hour week, which means in excess of 12 hours of unpaid

00:19work every week. And, of course, we do know about the chronic staff shortages, particularly

00:25teacher shortages that we have across our system, which are, of course, exacerbating

00:31the workloads and the challenges we confront in classrooms every day.

00:34The OECD report also says that the disciplinary climate in Australian schools is among the

00:40worst in its group of countries. Are teachers, your members, telling you that student behaviour

00:46is getting worse?

00:47Yeah, there are certainly concerns being raised with us about student behaviour, but I think

00:53we need to have a broader discussion than that, because when you starve a school system

00:58of the resources that are required, as we've seen in Australia over the last decade, of

01:04course that plays out in the classroom. And, you know, these are kids we're talking about

01:09who need extra support with their learning, with their mental health, with behavioural

01:16challenges. And that requires our schools, our public schools, to be resourced to the

01:20level that the federal government has set more than a decade ago, and which they continue

01:25to fail to address. Only 1.3 per cent of public schools in Australia right now are funded

01:32to that standard. And that means our schools, our teachers, our principals and support staff

01:37don't have the resources they need to respond to the very diverse and complex needs of our

01:43students.

01:44And are people leaving the profession because of the stresses?

01:48They certainly are. Workload is the most significant reason cited by our membership. But of course

01:54other issues about lack of respect for the profession, salaries that don't value the

01:58important work that they do for our community, are all issues which are driving people out

02:04of the profession. And governments, again, have focused very much on attracting new people

02:09into the profession. What they've failed to do is address the critical issues which are

02:13driving the existing workforce away, and will in fact drive our future members of the

02:19profession away as well. So we need to see public schools fully and fairly funded by

02:25the federal government and by state and territory governments around the country to ensure

02:30that staff in our schools have the resources needed to address the critical and important

02:35needs of our students.

02:37Merida, through our painting, a bad picture of being a teacher, aren't we? Why do people

02:41sign up to do the job in the first place?

02:46Teachers are very committed to the important work they do. It is a very enjoyable

02:51profession where you get to work with young people and children every day and to make a

02:56real difference to their lives. And people continue, despite the real challenges they

03:01face in doing this work, to want to make a difference for the kids they have in their

03:05classrooms. And unfortunately, our governments aren't meeting the needs of our staff or

03:10the children in our schools to be able to deliver that high quality education and

03:15support that is so clearly needed by our system.

03:19And we really need the federal government in particular to step up in the current funding

03:24negotiations and ensure that they follow through on the promise that they made prior to

03:29the last election to see public schools fully and fairly funded.

03:33Schools need the resources to meet the needs of their kids and to support the staff in

03:38doing the work that they're doing.

03:41Our members are stepping up.

03:42They're deeply committed.

03:43We need governments to do the same.

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