EDUCATION DEANS WELCOME ALP’s PROPOSED BURSARIES FOR TEACHERS

The Australian Council of Deans of Education welcomes the ALP plan to create $40,000 bursaries to make teaching more attractive to students and professionals, as reported in the mediatoday.

‘The bursaries are an excellent start and we assume that candidates’ non-academic traits, which are vital for effective teaching, will be taken into account alongside their academic achievements,’ ACDE President, Professor Tania Aspland, says.

‘The ACDE looks forward to hearing more about the ALP’s whole-of-career response to strengthen in-school support for early career teachers; improving teachers’ pay and career pathways; lessening the administrative burden on teachers; and facilitating teachers’ ongoing professional development,’ Professor Aspland says.

‘However, the success of the bursaries and other federal plans will depend largely on agreements reached with the states, which are the major employers of teachers,’ she says.

The devil will be in the detail but some bursary questions still to be answered include:

• What safeguards will be put in place to ensure that those who receive bursaries complete their teacher education degrees, go into teaching after graduation and stay in teaching for a certain period of time?
• Will the bursaries be paid to the individuals or the institutions that teach them to be teachers?
• Will the bursaries be taxed?

ENDS