Who will Teach our children?

By Sara Templeton

At the moment there is a drought affecting the teaching profession and, if industry experts are to be believed, it's going from bad to worse.

As discussed in my previous careers article on teaching, it started when younger Australian teachers began leaving the country for better paid positions.

After five or six years, most young teachers will hit their salary ceiling and this can be quite disenchanting, with many deciding to pack up and leave for more lucrative international teaching positions.

However, new research indicates that in the next four years, more than a quarter of the current teachers in Australia will reach retirement age.

A new report compiled by the Federal Government shows that the teaching situation is getting worse. In fact, Australia could even reach the stage where school teachers are leaving in higher numbers than their younger graduate fellows are arriving.

The new Government report, which examines the demand and supply of teachers in Australia, indicates that more than a quarter of teachers in the country will reach retirement age in the next four years. While this doesn't always mean they will retire, many will, and therein lies the problem.

While primary schools aren't likely to suffer much, secondary schools are in real danger, with subjects like technology, maths and science already experiencing the crunch of fewer teachers. Regional and country areas are also likely to be hit hard in the next decade, and according to the Government report, the average age of today's teacher is 43, and that Australian could be looking at losing up to 30,000 teachers in the next 10 years.

But this problem of teacher shortages isn't just affecting Australia. On the contrary. Many English-speaking countries are already having similar problems, including places like Britain, the US, Canada and even New Zealand.

At present teachers will still often go on strike demanding more pay, which would ideally bring more teachers into the fold and, while some incentives exist to attract teachers to specific areas, most will agree that more needs to be done. In time, we will know.

Links:

Education Network Australia
Commonwealth Dept. of Education, Science and Training
StudyLink Education Directory Australia (education courses)
Independent Education Union of Australia
Australian Education Union