In October 2024, the Inquiry into the State Education System in Victoria was tabled in parliament.
One of the seven chapters was dedicated to discussing the teacher shortage, but what does it say about rural and regional areas?
Reasoning
The report discussed several reasons for the shortage, including:
- National labour market shortages and increased competition across a range of industries for tertiary students and professionals.
- A national decline in initial teacher education enrolments.
- Increased demand for teachers because of population growth and increased investment in schools.
- The pause in immigration during the pandemic, which challenged the system.
“Workforce pressures are particularly acute for specialist schools, schools in rural and remote areas,” the report said.
“In rural settings, it is not only schools struggling to attract workers: hospitals, aged care and other sectors in a similar situation.”
What’s the impact?
One staff member at a rural school said the impact on schools was worse than reported, with measures including:
- Requiring assistant principals and principal, who are contracted to have no face‑to‑face teaching time, to be in classrooms.
- Increasing the number of weekly sessions teachers are required to teach.
- Refusing leave‑without‑pay, such as to younger teachers who often take a year to go travelling.
- Refusing requests of senior staff to reduce workloads from five to four or three days per week.
Barriers to acquisition
One of the suggested ways to increase regular teachers in the classroom is Permission to Teach, which allows teaching students who haven’t finished their degree, to work in the classroom.
Although it is currently being used by rural and regional schools, the report suggests the process of getting Permission to Teach is more difficult than it needs to be.
It compared Victoria to NSW, stating that there are extra steps for Victorian schools that should be removed.
“In both states, the conditional/permission to teach status can be given if the prospective teacher’s degree covers discipline knowledge relevant to the subjects or disciplines in which they are employed to teach,” the report said.
“However, in Victoria, such a person could only be employed after the employer has first provided information to the VIT about why a registered teacher was unable to be recruited.
“This ... seems to be an extra barrier that delays getting teachers into classrooms.”
Is there a solution?
Throughout the report, there are several suggested solutions or temporary fixes to ease the pressure of schools and staff, such as introducing an internship model.
One submitter recommended a model that involved:
- Undergraduates entering the profession after three years of study, not four.
- The completion of a final fourth year while working full‑time in a school.
- Trainee teachers would require blocks of time to do university training online from their base school.
- Trainee teachers would undertake a registration project required by VIT in this year.
- Trainees would complete their degree, gain full registration and earn a wage.
“Honestly, they walk in, and they start teaching, and it is like walking into a brick wall. There is so much more to it than what that gives,” a submission said.
“So to have a proper internship like they used to do would be my recommendation for the panel.”
Other solutions proposed included targeted financial supports, international teachers, increasing housing for teachers, especially in regional and rural areas, and changes and extra effort in retaining teachers.
The Victorian Government has six months from when the report was published to make decisions on which recommendations to adopt.
To read the full report, head to tinyurl.com/ycyc7jsp
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