TOP TEACHER BONUS
Education boss’s solution to fixing school crisis
TOP educators could be paid more to stay in the classroom, teachers could be paid more overall and people in other jobs could be offered more money to switch over under a groundbreaking overhaul to fix Australia’s teaching shortage crisis.
Teachers could also get extra training and stress-testing to make sure they can handle the demands of diverse and difficult kids and pushy parents, the man leading a wideranging national review of teaching has told News Corp.
Professor Mark Scott, vicechancellor of the University of Sydney and former secretary of the NSW Education Department, has been charged with by the federal government to look into why there has been a collapse in teacher numbers – and how to fix it.
The Teacher Education Expert Panel also includes Emeritus Professor Bill Loudon, former deputy vice-chancellor and dean of education at the University of WA; Rebecca West, a former Teacher of the Year; Professor Michele Simons, president of the Australia Council of the Deans of Education; Andrew Peach, a former Principal of the Year; and Jenny Donovan, the chief executive officer of the Australian Education Research Organisation.
Professor Scott is also a member of the education advisory panel assembled by News Corp to help inform the direction of the Best in Class advocacy campaign. While the panel is yet to hand down formal findings, he gave key insights into its thinking in an interview with News Corp.
Professor Scott said one of the key issues was to tackle the current perverse structure in which outstanding teachers needed to move into administrative roles if they wanted better pay.
“I think the idea of structuring more jobs within a school system that is rewarding great teaching, rather than saying you have to go into administration, or you have to be a principal to get the bigger dollars, is a better option” he said.
“I think that’s a way of sending a signal: We value what you do in the classroom, rather than having to escape the classroom to get the benefit.”
On the issue of so-called “performance pay”, Professor Scott called on teachers unions – which have fiercely resisted such an initiative – to realise the system needed to change and that teachers should be paid more.
“I think the unions should actively engage around some level of flexibility, particularly around rewarding classroom teachers for staying in the classroom,” he said.
While he understood governments had tight wages policies, “we’ve got to look at the reality of the circumstances that we are facing for teachers, and that is we’re going to face chronic year-on-year shortages. So, we will have to try some new things and one of those levers clearly needs to be remuneration.”
Professor Scott said people in other professions needed to be encouraged to switch to teaching, with fast-tracked degrees that the government could pay for as an investment in bolstering the workforce with high-quality candidates.
“We’ve got to recognise that a mid-career entrant into teaching is a very different customer to an 18-year-old,” he said.
“And I think we’ve got to look at ways of being able to really focus on what they need to be a good teacher, to teach that intensively to get them into the classroom sooner. And, also, I think pay them as they go.”
Otherwise, he said, someone with a mortgage and family would be highly unlikely to make the transition.
Professor Scott also said teaching graduates needed to be better prepared for the realities of classroom life and the practicalities of managing students and their parents.
“Around dealing with diversity within the classroom, where you deal with different kids are at different levels, but also dealing with the complexity of dealing with demanding families, and the challenges of life in the staff room, and all of that,” he said.
“So I do think we need to pay more attention to what is what builds resilience in early teachers.”