Page 1935 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 May 2010
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Students with disabilities will receive additional support, with $1.6 million over four years to address a number of the recommendations contained in the Shaddock Review of Special Education.
As I understand it, the Shaddock review of special education was over both government and non-government schools. Yet here we have $1.6 million being given, as part of the Shaddock review into special education, to only part of our school community. I pose the question to the Treasurer and to the minister for education: correct this oversight and let us know how this situation has come into place.
I note also the $3.9 million committed over four years to establish an ACT Teacher Quality Institute. This institute will be responsible for teacher registration and accreditation against national standards. Whilst we note the establishment of this institute and understand that standardised accreditation is important, there are additional urgent priorities for the education sector and for the teachers. For example, according to the ACT branch of the Australian Education Union, deputy principal pay levels are 16.1 per cent below those of their counterparts across the border in New South Wales. Equally, a casual relief teacher’s pay can be as much as 11.8 per cent below the going rate in New South Wales. In fact, the ACT comes out at the losing end, in comparison to New South Wales, in every teacher salary step comparison except one.
This is a matter of attracting and retaining teachers in the ACT and as such it would have been good to hear the government in this budget consider the issue of teacher pay parity and workload. Minister Barr talks about wanting to attract “the best teachers in the country”. Yet our teachers here in the ACT are underpaid and overworked. In a recent discussion with a constituent it was noted that, on average, it takes a teacher 10 years to earn a salary equivalent to the shorter time frame it would take a graduate—three years, I understand—to attain EL1 level in the commonwealth government or SOGC level within the ACT government.
Teachers also need better provisions for professional training. They need reasonable workloads to allow them to apply what they have learnt. They need more quality support teachers. This list is merely indicative and it would have been good to hear the government articulate this within the budget. Again, this budget should be about the people, not marquee projects. Minister Barr, it is not that teachers should be recognised as professionals; they are professionals and should be treated as such and should be paid as such and should get the considerations that all the teaching profession deserves.
The government have had since 2001 to get this right, but here we are, nine years later, with the government still referring back to what the Liberal government did nine years ago—not looking at their responsibilities to our community, and in this instance I am talking about the education community.
I note also the $12.6 million designated for environmentally sustainable initiatives and infrastructure upgrades. In tandem with the $12.5 million set aside for skilling in the ACT, it would have been good to see some commitment to developing green skills.
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