Yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese launched a $10 million teacher recruitment campaign to tackle the nationwide teacher shortage crisis.
The campaign, “Be That Teacher”, features eight public school teachers describing a personal ‘special teaching moment’ that has inspired them to continue to teach.
The campaign includes 30 second and 60 second videos of each teacher, and posters of them with inspiring quotes.
The featured teachers conclude their video stories with sentimental reflections, such as the following:
“If life is about creating meaningful moments, you get a meaningful moment every single day in this profession.”
“There is not another profession that touches the human soul as this does.”
“It was my impact that changed how much passion [my student] had for the subject.”
“You don’t plan to be someone’s idol, but sometimes you are.”
The PM said the campaign is aimed at “highlighting the wonderful impact that teachers can have,” as well as “to celebrate and value the profession of teaching for the extraordinary profession that it does.”
“We’ll have stories … across billboards, train stations, bus stops and social media because we want more young Australians to see this and decide to be that teacher, that teacher who changes lives, who provides an inspiration going forward,” he explained.
“I can’t think of a more valuable campaign not just for young Australians, but for the future of Australia that we wish to create.”
Teachers create dreams!!#teachers #parents #BeThatTeacher https://t.co/VXcH6TelSn pic.twitter.com/lEEOREUTDL
— Poppy Masselos (@poppymasselos) October 31, 2023
On Tuesday morning, Albanese appeared at Kirrawee High School in Sydney’s south with Education Minister Jason Clare and NSW Education Minister Prue Carr to address the press about the campaign.
Clare referred to recent surveys which showed that most teachers don’t think that what they do is valued by the community.
“We need to change that,” Clare said. “This campaign is all about changing the way we as a country think about our teachers, and the way our teachers think our country thinks of them.”
“I want more young Australians to want to be a teacher. To be that teacher, who inspires and changes young lives. Teaching is the most important job in the world.”
The campaign, which will run until April next year, was co-funded by all states and territories and includes a dedicated website with the campaign videos and posters, as well as a simple guide on how to become a public school teacher.
A portal has also been created for people to submit their own stories about teachers who inspired them. Submitted stories will be reviewed and screened by the Department of Education for potential publication on the website.
Clearly, a lot of work has been done to recruit new teachers. But will it work?
The Australian Education Union (AEU) President Correna Haythorpe acknowledges teaching as “the greatest profession of all” and that “positive recruitment campaigns are an important part of making teaching more attractive to the high achieving young people we urgently need to become teachers,” yet she admits that other forms of investment is required from the government.
“Nobody should think this is the answer to a recruitment and retention crisis that has been decades in the making,” Haythorpe said.
“Public school principals and teachers are doing an amazing job, but they are being asked to do too much with too little.”
“The Prime Minister needs to do much more than launch advertisements. He needs to honour the government’s commitment to end the underfunding of public schools.”
Haythorpe believes that investing in teachers and public schools is the only way to ensure that more teachers are recruited and retained.
She is calling for full funding from the government to give teachers more time and support to meet the varying needs of their students, as well as space to ensure teachers avoid early onset burnout.
“The number one issue driving teachers from the profession is unsustainable workloads,” she said. “Only 13 per cent of public school teachers say their workload is manageable and one in five leave within three years of entering the profession.”
Haythorpe also called on the Albanese Government to sign funding agreements with state and territory governments within the next 12 months to “put an end to the underfunding of public schools by 2028.”
Speaking to the media at yesterday’s launch, the PM said the government is committed to achieving a pathway to full and fair funding.
“Next year, you’ll see a new school funding agreement, and that is something we aim to reach with each state and territory government,” he said.
According to Haythorpe, less than 2 per cent of public schools across the country are resourced at 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard — “which is the minimum level governments agreed a decade ago was necessary to meet the needs of all students.”
“By contrast, 98 per cent of private schools are funded at or above the SRS,” Haythorpe said.
The president of AEU’s Victoria branch believes a retention payment from the state government will be more effective in keeping teachers in the classroom.
“The shortage of teachers, principals and education support staff is having an impact on Victorian public schools right now, today,” President Meredith Peace said.
“The situation is extremely serious, with students in too many classrooms without a permanent qualified teacher. It is a completely unacceptable situation.”
Other public figures have weighed in with suggestions, including Co-Founder of North Sydney Independent, Denise Shrivell, who tweeted earlier this week:
“Here’s an idea to attract more people to teaching – improve their wages and working conditions. Will the $10m advertising campaign address this?”
At yesterday’s launch, both Albanese and Education Minister Prue Car attempted to address the issue of teachers’ salaries.
“The truth is that this campaign is never going to aim at teachers being paid as much as engineers or doctors,” the PM said. “What it’s aimed at doing is if you look at a fulfilling life that you have where you’re making a difference, that’s part of the equation as well.”
Car responded by saying that “…teachers are expert professionals, they deserve to be paid like expert professionals.”
“They are the most important profession in society, hands down. And the way that we talk about teachers is so important, and the way that we talk about it as the model profession, as a noble profession, is so important. So, I suppose that’s our focus.”
“Here in NSW, we have given teachers a massive pay rise. A pay rise they’ve deserved and they were denied by the previous Liberal government for twelve years.”
Elsewhere, Greens education spokesperson Senator Penny Allman-Payne asked the question — “what awaits these new teachers when they enter the classroom?”
“A lack of resources and support staff, mountains of paperwork, and a workload that is impossible for many teachers to sustain,” she said in a statement.
Allman-Payne believes the mass exodus of teachers is caused by “appalling conditions” and teachers “not being able to do the jobs they love”.
“If the government wants to attract and keep teachers in the classroom it needs to make sure they have the resources and support they need to actually teach,” she said.
“Every public school in the country must be funded to 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard at the start of the next NSRA, in January 2025.”
Beyond all this, gaining the tertiary credentials to become a public school teacher requires an individual to commit to at least twelve months of study, and undergo up to three months of unpaid work experience.
The PM acknowledges the “lasting legacy on future generations” teachers have — but deliberately looks away from the realities of stepping into the profession, as well as its taxing emotional toll.