‘It takes a department to raise a child…’

Who has ever said that? Hopefully nobody, but it’s clear that this has been the subconscious mindset in our failing education system for decades now.

The proof is in the pudding – students are underachieving, teachers are leaving the profession in droves, and government education departments are becoming increasingly bloated.

The threat posed to education in our country is real – 70 per cent of teachers are considering quitting altogether, citing burnout and attrition as the major reasons.

Coming off an incredibly stressful period for educators across Australia, where teachers had to adapt and provide lessons in circumstances not seen before, they’ve not been offered much relief.

Instead, we’ve seen a rise in classroom unrest, with fights regularly breaking out. And of course, the ever-present problems with mobile phones and vaping that remain out of control in some schools – additional issues that teachers are having to manage.

Let’s not forget the significant and ongoing challenges that pose a physical threat to teachers – just last week we saw shocking footage of a knife-wielding student who plunged a Queensland school into lockdown, inflicting wounds on another student.

These are the sort of things that teachers are having to put up with, so it’s no surprise they are looking to get out of the classroom.

We need qualified teachers and we need them fast.

But recruitment alone can’t keep up with the mass of numbers leaving, and it’s clear that there are significant issues within the education system that are causing teachers enormous levels of stress.

Teachers need to be set free from the constant trivial paperwork overload and poor student-teacher ratios. They also need to be protected from unruly students, which the current system allows to run largely unchecked.

So, how can we achieve this? By creating a system that teachers would want to teach in.

A system rid of the pointless paperwork that absorbs valuable time and forces teachers to second guess every move they make.

Our teachers need to teach, not administrate.

Right now there are thousands of qualified teachers sitting in government departments doing work that need not exist – they should be called upon to help fix teaching shortages.

By doing away with the current bureaucratic rule, we make the profession itself much more desirable and enable schools to be run locally.

And that means individual schools can do their necessary administration locally.

For some time, teachers have been crying out for this.

Over the years, government departments have sought to find reasons to justify their existence, and education is no different. Creating menial, purposeless work for themselves and for the teachers in the classroom.

Take for instance the NCCD process in schools.

Up until recently, schools were funded for students who were verified as requiring special needs. Teachers were then allowed to modify assessments as needed in their professional judgement to best suit the students’ needs.

In step, the bureaucrats, who demand teachers annotate every single piece of assessment and submit that to the department for constant verification on a term-by-term basis.

Schools are now being forced to have pupil-free days at the end of each semester so that teachers can find the time to complete this excessive paperwork for the department.

How about we rely on the professional judgement of teachers to actually teach what is required, rather than make them jump through hoops just to please the bureaucrats?

In conjunction with school management and parent-elected boards, teachers would be best placed to be able to provide the kind of education that local communities expect.

If teachers were to fail in this process, then parents would vote with their feet by moving students away from those schools. Principals and teachers alike are in constant contact with parents and would be well aware of any such issues arising. They understand the ever-present threat of parents moving their children to another school for a host of potential reasons.

Parents are well connected with one another, and it is this connection amongst the community that ultimately holds one another to account.

Formalising this process through school boards, whereby only parents of current students at each school are eligible to serve, will enable a genuine and local avenue for accountability.

Boards of this nature would be able to best put forward the ideas, questions and concerns of the local schooling community when it comes to things like curriculum, staffing levels, and student behaviour management.

Locally run. Accountable to local parents.

Why would we want a government department telling our teachers how to teach?

The little administration that is needed in the education system is easily manageable within individual schooling communities. After all, they know the teachers, students, and parents far better than any government department could.

The teachers are the professionals.

Not only do they study for four years at university, but they also spend an additional four to five years as an apprentice developing their craft in schools under the guidance of experienced teachers.

It is these experienced teachers along with the principals and school management who are developing teaching talent in our country – not bureaucrats.

Ending the need for the 90 per cent of departmental bureaucrats would allow for greater funds to be allocated towards paying our teachers, and would remove many of the roadblocks that are stalling the progression of education in Australia.

We need to put control of schools back into the hands of the parent-elected boards and principals who actually know what they are doing.

Until we do that, our education system will remain in the same state it currently is – paralysed by bureaucratic inefficiency and the rampant Woke ideology that they generate.

Scott Stanford – National Coordinator, Teachers’ Professional Association