The Productivity Commission has released a  research report on the schools sector workforce which  proposes a package of reforms that it maintains would give priority to improving teacher quality and reducing teacher shortages, including to ameliorate  educational disadvantage.

The report covered:

  • factors affecting the supply of, and demand for, school workers
  • whether the knowledge and skills base of the workforce, and its deployment within and across schools and regions, are appropriate to meet the community's needs
  • whether policy, governance and regulatory arrangements (in place or in prospect) are conducive to maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of the schools workforce and, if not, what changes may be required.

Recommendations include, in summary, that:

  • The Australian Government should not provide university fee repayment discounts for students who enrol in pre-service teacher education courses after 2012.
  • accreditation standards for initial teacher education programs should be revised so that the discipline-specific knowledge required to enter a postgraduate teaching course can be interpreted more flexibly.
  • measures should be trialled that enable principals to use explicit remuneration-based incentives for attracting suitably qualified teachers into hard-to-staff positions.
  • guidance should be published on the evidence that training providers are expected to use to demonstrate that their graduates meet the Graduate Teacher Standards.
  • accreditation standards for initial teacher education programs should be revised  so that two-year graduate teacher training courses remain an option rather than a mandatory requirement.
  • Schools should be required to develop and maintain an effective performance appraisal system for teachers.
  • government school principals should have the authority to take disciplinary action — including dismissal — when a teacher’s performance fails to rise to the relevant standard after being given reasonable time and support to do so.
  • The Australian Government’s proposed Reward Payments for Great Teachers initiative should be reformulated so that: reward payments are provided only to high-performing teachers; it does not entrench an expectation that higher certification automatically entitles teachers to higher pay; it allows schools to tailor their regular teacher performance appraisals and professional development to local circumstances.

The report is the final in a series on the education and training workforces, following two previous reports which examined the workforces for vocational education and training, and early childhood development.

The report is available at www.pc.gov.au