Page 1515 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 May 1990
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ccupations where you can spend a number of years in one place and see the product of what you do come through; you see young children as they develop. Mostly you see that with pleasure; occasionally, you see with disappointment that you have not succeeded in what you wanted to do.
Of great importance for teachers is the support of the Government and of the department that administers the education sector. This is most important. In recent times there has been a renewed scrutiny of teaching and the quality of teaching. "Quality in teaching" are now words that are becoming quite familiar in our language. This is not surprising because of the importance of teaching, but there are problems that are beginning to emerge. In some States there is a looming teacher shortage. On the advice I received, that is not the case in the ACT. The figures for enrolments in the University of Canberra confirm that. It may not be the case here because of certain factors, not the least being that it is very easy - and I am pleased that this is the case - for women to undertake a new career and to engage in that career without leaving their homes. Canberra is an ideal place for that because of its city-state nature.
There is an emerging problem with the status of teaching. If you have read the press clippings related to education you will have seen in the last year the debate on where teaching stands in the esteem of the community. It is not as high as I think most people would expect it to be. There are many important reasons for that, but that is the fact.
Salary, which I will deal with shortly, is one of those reasons, but it is only one. I think you will understand that when I compare the salaries of teachers to the salaries of members of this Assembly. I do not think there is one member here who came into this Assembly on the basis of what the salary was going to be. Not one of us, I think, came in with that view. Yet it is an important factor, is it not, in our day-to-day lives? It is a factor we are well aware of, and I think this is the same with teachers. They do not choose to go teaching in the first instance because of the salary, but if the salary is seen to be inadequate then it may be a factor in changing some person's mind to go into that profession.
Salary level is a major determinant of the esteem in which any profession or any job is held in the community. I know this comes in waves. Sometimes teachers and other occupations go up and down in public esteem. At the moment, teaching seems to be going down. There are moves across Australia now to upgrade the quality of teachers and with that to improve the status of teachers. Part of that - an important part but not the total part, as I have said - is to upgrade teachers' salaries. I was surprised at some of the comments that I have read supporting an increase in teachers' salaries. Professor Chipman of Wollongong University has long been a critic as well as a
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