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More positive action needed to reverse science teacher shortage |
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Tuesday, 20 May 2008 |
By Professor Mark Hackling
This opinion was written for ScienceNetwork WA in response to the Staff in Australia’s Schools 2007 survey and the Federal Government’s reaction.
The report confirms for us that there is a significant staff shortage of maths and science teachers at a time when Australia has a desperate skills shortage in science technology, engineering and mathematics.
In addition a large proportion of our teachers will retire within the next decade; at least a quarter of our Year 11 and 12 maths, physics and chemistry teachers are underqualified in their discipline; and, many of our new teachers are unsure about a long-term career in teaching.
The Commonwealth Government’s announcement that it will halve HECS contributions for students studying maths and science, and halve again contributions for those who go on to teach these subjects, is a helpful response, particularly given that many science programs attract higher levels of HECS charges, and for some students cost is a barrier to university study.
However given the urgency of the situation and that it takes four years to ‘train’ a school leaver to be a teacher additional measures are required.
For example, scholarships that provide a training wage to support graduates completing a Diploma of Education will produce new teachers in 12 months.
Recent responses by the Western Australian Department of Education and Training to introduce scholarship programs to support the training of maths, science and technology teachers and the retraining of teachers who wish to change teaching fields are positive responses.
A reduced teaching load for first year out teachers and the support of a fully resourced mentoring program would also reduce the high level of attrition amongst early career teachers.
A comprehensive response is required to ensure that schools are adequately staffed with well qualified teachers and this will required co-ordinated action from both Commonwealth and state governments.
Professor Mark Hackling is Professor of Science and Technology Education at Edith Cowan University. He co-authored the 2001 report The Status and Quality of Teaching and Learning of Science in Australian Schools and has been involved in the development of many leading professional learning programs for science teachers, including the highly successful Primary Connections program.
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"Australian Bureau of Statistics data indicate that there are around 450,000 people aged between 15 and 64 who are trained as teachers, with only around 280,000 working as teachers….To the extent that there are reported shortages in these areas, this does not reflect an absolute shortfall in suitably qualified people, but rather, a choice by many of them not to work in these fields. Given the competing demands for labour, solving skills shortages within schools clearly involves more than simply boosting the number of people qualified as teachers.”
No mention of the disparity of teachers fields of experience.
Considering the cut to the overall higher education budget one would have to question how committed this federal government is to fixing this problem sooner rather than later.
It was a labor federal government that introduced HECS in the first place and IMHO the labor party has never been one to shy away from attacking the so called 'intellectual elite'.
If the government actually thought that science was a national priority it would be in the 'National priority' band for HECS fees. It's in Band 2 along with economics, computing and engineering which means science graduates incur the same level of debt but without the income levels as in incentive.