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Standing Committee on Social Issues

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About this Item
Subjects -  Teachers; Universities; Tax: Graduate; Tax: Fringe Benefits; Parliamentary Committees: New South Wales: Committee on the Office of the Ombudsman and The Police Integrity Commission
Speakers - Burnswoods The Hon Jan; Deputy-President (Reverend the Hon Fred Nile)
Business - Committee, Report


    STANDING COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL ISSUES
Page: 1472


    Report: Recruitment and Training of Teachers

    Debate resumed from 8 November 2005.

    The Hon. JAN BURNSWOODS [3.24 p.m.]: I take pleasure in commencing the debate on the thirty-fifth report of the Standing Committee on Social Issues, entitled "Recruitment and training of teachers". The report was tabled in October last year and we have since received a response from the Government. Although it would have been preferable to have had this debate earlier, which used to be the case before we had as many as 34 reports on the agenda, I nevertheless welcome the opportunity to engage in debate now. The inquiry into the recruitment and training of teachers was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Issues by a former Minister for Education and Training, Dr Andrew Refshauge. The report deals with a number of important issues. In many ways those have become even more important as time has passed because they relate not only to the recruitment and training of teachers but also more broadly to the recruitment and training of other professionals, particularly those that experience a large recruitment demand from predominantly State Government agencies.

    In particular I draw to the attention of the House the many parallels between issues relating to the recruitment and training of teachers and the issues relating to the recruitment and training of nurses. I could probably nominate several other professions with parallels, but teaching and nursing are the two major professions in that category. For the good of our community, we need very large numbers of teachers and nurses. They are trained in universities, and many of the issues dealt with in the report concern the training of teachers at universities. The work forces in both teaching and nursing are predominantly female. That factor raises its own issues concerning resignation rates, the balancing of work and family responsibilities and the return of people to the profession after a considerable lapse of time in the context of retraining and moving from one area of a profession to another.

    I make those preliminary points for the benefit of those who do not have a particular interest in education because this report is interesting not only because of its treatment of the importance of having a good supply of teachers for the sake of the whole community, but also to give pause for thought to those who are interested in other professions. The report deals with a number of different areas and contains a relatively small number of recommendations. The Government's response discusses the recommendations. The Government has accepted some recommendations completely, some in part, and some not at all.

    I will briefly discuss the recommendations. The first couple of recommendations deal with the Board of Governance of the Institute of Teachers and the Quality Teaching Council. Much of the report deals with the Institute of Teachers, which was set up by statute in 2004. The first couple of recommendations of the report deal with the institute. I believe the Institute of Teachers is making a big difference to the professional status and professionalism of the teaching service in New South Wales. The report also deals with the need for the Department of Education and Training to have a strong presence in universities and to do more to ensure that people undertaking undergraduate courses, and who may later enter education, or people who undertake education courses from the outset, which is the more common practice, are attracted to the State Government's education system.

    The department needs to ensure that it is competing effectively on campuses with private education providers that are chasing the best graduates. The department should ensure that would-be teachers are aware, right from the outset of their courses, of the mix of subjects they should study to equip themselves to teach the quite carefully structured courses that are offered by the State education system, particularly in secondary schools. The report also recommends that the Department of Education and Training should ensure that it is offering scholarships and maintaining a presence among students who are in the final year of their university courses because private education providers, particularly in relation to secondary technological subjects, maths and science, are present in universities months before graduation to recruit those students who are regarded as being among the brightest.

    The report makes particular comment about scholarships and about a matter that has been reported in the media in the past couple of weeks: the appalling situation of the Commonwealth Government insisting on imposing fringe benefits tax on higher education contribution scheme payments made by the New South Wales Department of Education and Training as part of the scholarship that it offers. That is absolutely crazy and short-sighted in an area that the Commonwealth Government has admitted should not have students paying high fees. The department is trying very hard to increase the number of graduates but the Commonwealth Government is making it difficult for that to happen by imposing fringe benefits tax on part of the scholarship. The committee certainly joined with many people in calling on the Commonwealth Government to stop that ridiculous practice.

    The Hon. Charlie Lynn: Point of order: I am not quite sure that the committee did do that. The honourable member just referred to the committee condemning the Federal Government. I do not recall that happening during the committee proceedings.

    The Hon. JAN BURNSWOODS: To the point of order: Recommendation 5 calls on the Government to "seek a commitment from the Commonwealth Government to review its policy of charging Fringe Benefits Tax on the Higher Education Contribution Scheme payments made by the Department of Education and Training through its scholarship program". Apart from the fact that the comment by the Hon. Charlie Lynn was not a point of order, what he said was factually wrong, and as a member of the committee he should know better.

    The DEPUTY-PRESIDENT (Reverend the Hon. Fred Nile): Order! The Hon. Jan Burnswoods is in order in referring to a recommendation of the committee that relates to the Commonwealth Government.

    The Hon. JAN BURNSWOODS: Recommendation 6, and a significant part of the report, deals with the Accelerated Teacher Training Program. Earlier I referred to the grave shortages in certain areas, particularly in secondary schools. In one controversial step, the department took qualified and experienced people in certain professions who had expressed an interest in retraining as teachers. That step was taken with regard to one group about which honourable members may have heard: people who had formerly worked for BHP with engineering degrees and a great deal of experience in a range of scientific areas were able to undertake a short course to retrain as teachers. There has been some controversy about this, partly because of the short duration of the course, and partly because of difficulties some people had in adjusting to a classroom situation. The committee heard considerable evidence and looked at the pros and cons of that step.

    In another recommendation the committee called on the department to make public the findings of the 2006 evaluation of that relatively new program. That major evaluation is due to be carried out this year. The committee made recommendations dealing with the role of the Institute of Teachers—the development of standards, the need to make sure of the links in teacher education, the importance of induction of new teachers, and the role of continuing professional education.

    The Institute of Teachers commenced only last year. It has a very important role to play in expanding the professionalism and status of the teaching profession. The committee devoted quite a lot of attention to discussing the need to look at all the different parts of the process including the institute consulting with universities about the design of courses through to the practicum, which is dealt with in recommendation 8; the induction period for new teachers; the need for continuing professional development and recognition of the role of continuing professional development; and an ability for teachers to have their work recognised for promotion opportunities and salaries.

    Practicum supervision is quite difficult. Some years ago the former practice of paying teachers who supervised university students undertaking education studies was abolished. There were a number of reasons for that, one of which related to professionalism. It was argued for many years that in other professions—and medicine is probably the best known—the profession itself handled the post-graduate education and training, and professional development of its people. The professions would see that, perhaps slightly preciously, as insulting if it were suggested that people playing that role—specialists and so on—would need to be given extra payment to do so. The supervision of university students practising during their teacher training is quite onerous from the point of view of the supervisor and can cause big organisational difficulties in schools. It is often not very well organised at universities and may not be very well organised at schools. Without wishing to blame anyone, in that regard universities have found it more and more difficult to find schools that will participate. The schools that do participate often find they are bearing the burden with regard to timetabling, administration and interruptions to the classes affected, and they may not be amply compensated for what they feel they get from the young students.

    [Debate interrupted.]


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