Page 5645 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 November 2010
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The institute will be responsible for identifying and facilitating continuous professional development opportunities for teachers in line with their career and professional needs. Demonstrated commitment to professional development will be an essential aspect of a teacher’s continued registration. It will be the institute’s responsibility to ensure that opportunities are available to all teachers who wish to pursue them.
The institute will in future have an additional role in identifying, adopting and managing nationally agreed standards for teaching and school leadership as a means of providing a framework for teachers’ lifelong learning and career aspirations. In doing this, the institute will work closely with principals and their staff to identify the current and future needs of teachers.
If the Assembly supports this bill, the institute will come into operation in early 2011. The institute will be governed by a board of directors drawn from government, independent and Catholic schools. Also represented on the board will be members from the teacher education fraternity, unions and, importantly, the community. Responsibilities of the board will include ensuring that the institute’s operations are in line with regional and community needs and that it is managed with a high degree of professional governance.
This legislation will provide the framework for this body and the functions that I have just outlined. The ACT Teacher Quality Institute will be instrumental in delivering six-figure salaries for our best classroom teachers, in accelerating the career paths of our youngest and most enthusiastic teachers and in introducing contract arrangements for principals. The quality of student outcomes cannot exceed the quality of teaching.
This new institution endorses and recognises the opportunity for reform through the national partnership on teacher quality with the Australian government. The purpose of the teacher quality institute is to provide a dedicated institution to support teachers as they strive to be the best that they can be.
I look forward to the Teacher Quality Institute being a key body in ensuring the attainment and maintenance of standards for the highest quality teaching possible in the Australian Capital Territory and I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Doszpot) adjourned to the next sitting.
Planning and Development (Environmental Impact Statements) Amendment Bill 2010
Mr Barr, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Gaming and Racing) (10.51): I move:
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