More teaching students should be offered paid work in schools while studying to help attract people to the profession and stem worsening teacher shortages, NSW university deans say.
Some teaching academics have also warned against any move to impose minimum ATAR standards for education degrees, saying it will exacerbate workforce shortages and convey a negative message to students about the profession.
University deans say teaching students should be offered paid work in schools.Credit:iStock
Appearing at a NSW parliamentary inquiry into teacher shortages, Australian Catholic University executive dean of education and arts, professor Mary Ryan, said paid work in classrooms would better prepare them for a career in teaching.
“So they don’t get a culture shock when they hit a school and think ‘wow this is a huge workload’,” she said.
Ryan said students placed in classrooms would still need to be linked to their universities and well-supported.
University of Newcastle dean of education, professor Susan Ledger, told the inquiry that giving student teachers too much responsibility in the classroom was a short-sighted solution to teaching shortages.
“But if they went in as para-professionals and just supported and transitioned into the workforce, that’s a different story,” Ledger said.
In a submission to the inquiry, the University of NSW school of education said more opportunities for paid, non-teaching work in schools while studying, as well as more flexible teaching courses, would help attract students to the profession in the short term.
In the longer term, the status of teaching as a profession needed to be lifted by increasing rates of pay and improved access to rewarding career paths, the university said.
Source: SMH
