Australia’s peak teachers’ union has slammed the Productivity Commission’s recommendation for off-the-shelf lesson plans, saying it “misses the mark” on addressing teacher workload and shortages and is “the last thing they need”.
The Productivity Commission’s interim report, released on 11 August, recommends creating a single national platform of high-quality, curriculum-aligned lesson plans to cut duplication and free teachers’ time.
The latest data on teacher workloads shows 26% of full-time educators worked over 60 hours per week during term time, with another 19% clocking 45–49 hours, and 26% at 50–54 hours – far above the standard 38-hour workweek. Teachers reported that 15–21 hours each week were consumed by marking, administration or team meetings.
The Australian Education Union (AEU) says while the Commission had correctly identified unsustainable workloads and teacher shortages as major issues in school education, teachers want a significant cut in their administration workloads so they can spend more time on lesson planning and working with their colleagues to meet the individual needs of their students.
In a statement following the release of the Productivity Commission’s interim report, the AEU said teachers also want “real action to end the teacher shortages impacting on all schools and particularly so that teachers didn’t have to teach outside their area of expertise.”
Research conducted as part of the national inquiry into school education found off-the-shelf lesson plans were the last thing teachers said would help them to lift results.
The top priorities of teachers were additional classroom support, more teachers and intensive tutoring support to help children at risk of falling behind.
“Governments need to listen to the profession and respect their experienced and informed views about what is needed to lift results,” AEU Deputy President, Meredith Peace, said in the statement.
“The needs of students have never been more complex and diverse and over one quarter in public schools have a disability. Teachers know that off-the-shelf lesson plans aren’t what they need to meet the individual needs of students.”
Peace said teachers need “better support inside and outside the classroom” and a dramatic cut in the excessive administration and compliance workloads that are “dragging their focus away from their students.”
“Teachers want what students need and that is why we have been campaigning to end the underfunding of public schools,” she said.
“The new investment secured in agreements between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments must be invested in ways that make a real difference to every child and every teacher in public schools.”