General News
7 March, 2024
Classroom concerns
UNDERFUNDING, a lack of defined best-practice direction, mental health and an exodus of staff are among the biggest concerns plaguing schools in the south west.
The issues were raised last week when Shadow Minister for Education Jess Wilson toured schools in Terang, Warrnambool and Portland, at the invitation of South West Coast MP Roma Britnell, to learn more about the challenges regional schools are facing.
Mrs Wilson said consistent themes had emerged during her discussions with principals and teachers.
“You’ve got workforce challenges and mental health challenges right across all schools, and we’ve got a situation in government schools where you’ve got an opportunity to implement best practice teaching and learning,” she said.
“The government isn’t going down that path, they’re leaving it as a school-by-school approach.
“It makes it harder on the workforce, and means our learning outcomes aren’t what we want them to be, and it’s putting greater stress on the teachers at a time when we have such a problem in the workforce.”
Mrs Wilson said south west schools were disproportionally impacted by staffing shortages as attracting staff presented greater challenges.
“If you look at the data, there is around 1500 vacancies when it comes to teachers and school staff right across Victoria and 390 of those are in the South West Coast,” she said.
“Attracting teachers is a huge challenge for regional schools.
“Every school we go to the number one issue is not only how do we get teachers to come to regional schools, but then how do we retain teachers in regional schools.
“If they come for one or two years, but then leave, it disrupts students and creates more stress on existing teachers – so what are we going to do to make sure we encourage teachers to remain in regional areas and want to work in these schools?”
Mrs Wilson said she believed an effective fix could be working towards bringing professional development opportunities to regional communities for regional educators.
“Where regional schools appear to be at a disadvantage is around professional development,” she said.
“Teachers need to access professional development to see that stepping stone, that career progression.
“Rural schools are treated in the same way as city schools and get the same amount of funding, yet have to travel hours and hours to get to Melbourne and stay overnight – it’s a strain on their budget so they can’t make it go as far.
“What we want to think about is how do we bring career development and make it more accessible to be able to bring it in to the school.
“Schools which have that talk about greater collegiality among staff and greater consistently across the school. That’s something we are really interested in.”
Ms Britnell said she had invited Mrs Wilson to the region after hearing from teachers, principals and parents that new challenges had emerged in education post-COVID-19.
“We’ve got some really amazing teachers, but you’re seeing experienced teachers saying they’ve lost control of the classroom, not because we don’t know how to teach, but because the kids know they’re in charge,” she said.
“They’re not being provided with the tools, as teachers, that they need to do what needs to be done.
“There are many good kids in schools but there are a lot more children, and each school we’ve been to across the region has expressed the disruptive situation had grown and they need more resources.
“We’ve heard we’re seeing a workforce shortage, in part because teachers are leaving the profession.
“It’s actually a teacher exodus, and the government has got to provide those resources which support teachers so they can be the educations they trained to be, and want to be.”
Read More: Terang