July 3rd, 2007

NEW RULES DISCOURAGE CASUAL TEACHERS

The Nationals’ Education spokesperson Peter Hall has raised concerns in Parliament about the impact of new registration requirements on casual relief teachers (CRTs).

He is worried that inflexibility in professional development requirements will be a disincentive for casual teachers and, particularly in country areas, will lead to a reduced number of people prepared to fill in at schools.

Mr Hall said CRTs are called into replace classroom teachers who are sick, on leave or absent for a variety of reasons.

“Without them, school principals may have to combine classrooms, cancel classes or at worst send children home,” Mr Hall said.

The Victorian Institute of Teachers (VIT) has recently introduced a requirement that all teachers must undertake 100 hours of professional development every five years in order to have their registration renewed. Mr Hall said professional development was important but noted that schools are funded in their global budget to fund professional development of their permanent staff.

“The problem is that casual relief teachers are not attached to a specific school, so they will have to pay for their own professional development in their own unpaid time.

“Given that CRTs commonly only work a day or two each week at best, it is likely that these new registration requirements will prove a disincentive to undertake CRT work. CRTs are currently in very short supply, particularly in country Victoria, where principals often struggle to find replacements for staff who ring in sick.

“We need to encourage more people to undertake CRT work, not discourage them. It is important that any registration requirements do not prove to be a disincentive for people to undertake casual relief teaching.”

Mr Hall said he had already had correspondence from casual teachers who were very concerned about the new proposals. “Teachers have indicated to me that unless there is some common sense applied for CRTs, they simply won’t be able to teach.

“The tragedy of that is that children, especially in country areas, may not have casual teachers available, with a consequent negative impact on their learning.”

In Parliament this week Mr Hall urged the Education Minister to ensure the Victorian Institute of Teaching put in place measures that do not discourage people from embarking on casual relief teaching. One possibility was a pro-rata system for part-time teachers and casual relief teachers.

Media contact:                  Peter Hall      (03) 5174 7066   or 0427 747 066