Education Ministers Agree To Establish National Action Plan Amid Teacher Shortages

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has met with his state and territory counterparts for a roundtable amid Australia's growing teacher shortage.

The long-overdue conversation on Friday resulted in the establishment of a national action plan to address challenges in the teaching workforce.

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Clare boasted that "great ideas came out of that conversation right across the board."

"We’ve agreed - we caught up after the meeting and agreed that we want a national action plan prepared by the secretaries of our department, drawing on the expertise of the teachers as well as the unions and the Catholic schools as well as the independent schools, and to put that action plan together for us to tick off when we meet again in December," he said.

"Building muscles on the bones" of what was discussed, the Federal Education Minister said three key areas in focus are:

• What are the things that we can do to encourage more people to become teachers? What sort of nationally coordinated action can we take from that?
• What can we do to prepare teachers for the workforce they’re about to enter?
• What do we do to keep the fantastic teachers that we already have?

Victorian and NSW education ministers Natalie Hutchins and Sarah Mitchell put forward several proposals to at the summit to lift retention rates and make teaching more appealing.

Ms Hutchins said she wants educators to know that they understand that Covid has been particularly hard on teachers, that “we’ve heard you and we we see you and we thank you for all you’ve done.”

"We know that COVID has presented so many more challenges in our classrooms and to our teaching. Even post-COVID, we've heard today how teachers are dealing with issues that they've never had to deal with in the past, with increased mental health on the rise for students.

"And for teachers themselves, we've heard that people are feeling burnt-out. And we want to say that we are working collaboratively across all of the states to deliver better outcomes for you," she said.

While Sarah Mitchell recognised that while "we're all dealing with the same issues and challenges," and conversations are important, they need to result in action and outcomes.

"But as Minister Clare said, the fact we will be working on a national plan that ministers can look at and agree to hopefully in December, I really think is an important step forward," Mitchell said.

Reiterating ideas canvassed in Friday's meeting, the Federal education minister said the proposal would also include practical experience for first-year students and paid internships for final-year students.

“One, what are the things that we can do to encourage more people to become teachers? ... Secondly, what can we do to prepare student teachers for the workforce they’re about to enter? And, thirdly, what do we do to keep the fantastic teachers that we already have?”

With greater insight, Clare said "teaching education is screaming out for reform. We need some reform here."

"Our jobs are so important, because if we get it right, the things that we do together can really change the lives of so many people. And we got to meet today with the people who have the most important job in the world - teachers," Mr Clare said.

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