This week, I was interviewed in several media outlets regarding comments made by our Federal Education Minister, Alan Tudge.
Essentially, I was responding to the usual ‘doom and gloom’ rhetoric about how we need to focus on our glaring teacher quality problem, have them learning how to teach reading/spelling/grammar at university (as though we don’t) and just generally teacher blaming.
The ambition, as it almost always is, is to have Australia climb back into the Top 10 countries in the world against scales such as PISA. In of itself, it’s not an unworthy ambition.
But, so what? Now what? What are we actually going to do in order to make this Top 10 dream materialise?
Well, Mr. Tudge, I have four Home Truth style suggestions and they continue in the Top 10 theme:
- Take Australian Teachers out of the global Top 10 for hours spent in the classroom.
- Take Australian Teachers out of the global Top 10 for countries who deny their Teachers enough hours to plan collaboratively.
- Place Australian Teachers in the global Top 10 for pre-service teaching hours spent in actual classrooms.
- Remove Australia’s Teachers from the Top 10 for administrative load.
If we were to tackle just these four objectives then I contend we’ll improve Teacher retention, Teacher burnout rates and I proudly predict that Australia’s student performance will improve when they’re in the company of well-regarded and well-prepared professional Australian educators.
In a nutshell, it’s time to start supporting our teachers instead of looking for something wrong with them. Australian Teachers are quality … already.
Keep fighting that good fight,
PS. I’ve made a decision to back up my bluster in this blog with action. From this moment on, every Australian Teacher who wants a copy of my book “Restoring Teaching” can have it for FREE (just chip in for the postage and handling). Head to this link, provide your deets and we’ll get it in the mail for you. I hope it helps.
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