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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-28 Daily Xml
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Motions

Public School Teachers

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (11:04): I move:

That this council—

1. Notes the release of the Teachers at Breaking Point report commissioned by the Australian Education Union (South Australian Branch) which found:

(a) South Australian public school teachers work on average over 50 hours per week, including 30 hours of tasks beyond face-to-face teaching;

(b) fewer than one in 10 teachers feel that their views are valued by policymakers in South  Australia and only one in five teachers view departmental policy demands as reasonable; and

(c) almost half of all respondents intend to leave teaching within five years, double the rate recorded in the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey.

2. Acknowledges that South Australian public school students deserve teachers who can fully exercise their commitment, knowledge of learning and learners in their context, understanding of complex relationships and needs, and love for teaching.

3. Calls on the Malinauskas government to commit to supporting South Australian public education by:

(a) increasing time and support for teachers to manage increasingly complex student needs;

(b) reducing administrative demands on teachers to make workloads healthy and sustainable;

(c) addressing shortage of staff to reduce workload pressure;

(d) increasing the voice of teachers and leaders in decision-making and co-construction of policy; and

(e) increasing support for early career teachers to sustain the profession.

I will speak very briefly to the motion because the focus of it is fairly clear. This is noting the release of the Teachers at Breaking Point report, which was commissioned by the Australian Education Union (South Australian branch), which found that:

South Australian public school teachers work on average over 50 hours per week, including 30 hours of tasks beyond face-to-face teaching;

fewer than one in 10 teachers feel that their views are valued by policymakers in South Australia and only one in five teachers viewed departmental policy demands as reasonable; and

almost half of all respondents intend to leave teaching within five years, double the rate that was recorded in the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey.

The motion goes on to acknowledge that South Australian public school students deserve teachers who can fully exercise their commitment, knowledge of learning and learners in their context and understanding of complex relationships and needs. It then calls on the Malinauskas government to commit to supporting South Australian public education by increasing the time and support for teachers to manage student needs by reducing administrative demands on teachers, addressing the shortage of staff to reduce workload pressure, increasing the voice of teachers and leaders in decision-making, and increasing support for early career teachers to sustain the profession.

I am a proud product of public education. It is an issue I am passionate about and I want to see our state's public schools getting a fair go. The Teachers at Breaking Point report, which was commissioned by the Australian Education Union, was published in November last year and it really looked at what is the shifting nature of teachers' work in public education, in particular the growing complexity and increasing professional demands and the impact that has on teachers' wellbeing and their ability to focus on their responsibilities.

The report found there has been a significant increase in workload and that also the work is becoming more complex. I did ask the Minister for Regional Development some questions about this yesterday in question time, looking at the impact this is having on the regions in particular. I do just want to pull out a few key elements from the report.

One of the problems that teachers are experiencing is a growing bureaucratic requirement and an increase in the top-down initiatives that are reducing the time they have available for core teaching. They report that they are not experiencing the time and autonomy they need to undertake appropriate planning. Teachers are feeling undervalued and underappreciated. The workplace conditions of South Australian teachers do not provide them with the time they need to do appropriate planning. Teachers care deeply about their students and they are frustrated they do not have the time they would like to be able to spend with them to meet their needs.

One thing that is really interesting to note from the report is that full-time teachers reported working on average 52 hours in the most recent full week of employment—52 hours—and over a third of teachers reported that they did not feel safe at work and did not find their workload manageable. Just 52 per cent of respondents reported being satisfied with their job overall. The current level of satisfaction of South Australian teachers, therefore, is in significant decline.

Workplace dissatisfaction was compounded by a sense that educators' voices are not heard and only 7 per cent of respondents said they felt they were being listened to by policymakers. Close to nine in 10 teachers considered leaving the profession and among those considering quitting teaching the most common reason was workload.

The report made five key recommendations. They relate to increasing support for teachers, reducing administrative demands, increasing the voice of teachers in decision-making, addressing a shortage of staff and increasing support for early career teachers to sustain the profession. You will note that the elements of the motion I have proposed today address those components. I urge the Malinauskas government to take this seriously. We are about to head into the mid-winter break, and I hope that they use that time to appropriately resource our teachers.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.E. Hanson.

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