The federal government will trial new ways to reduce teacher workloads and launch a multi-million dollar PR campaign as part of its draft plan to address teacher shortages.
The draft national plan follows months of roundtable discussions, and is being released for stakeholder feedback before the final policy is agreed on in December.
It is a response to escalating education work shortages, with the federal government predicting that if nothing changes, there will be around 4,000 fewer teachers than required by 2025.
Ahead of Thursday's announcement, Education Minister Jason Clare said $25 million would be spent trialling ways to reduce teacher workloads and to "maximise the time" teachers spent actually teaching.
"This fund is available to work with state governments and territory governments to test and try new things," he said.
He said solutions like increased teacher aide support, employing parents to do administrative work, as well as improved curriculum planning support were all on the table.
He also flagged funding for a $10 million campaign to raise the profile of teaching, a recommendation put forward by a recent government-funded review.
"The respect that the profession gets today isn't what it used to get," he said.
"Too many people overlook teaching as a profession when they're sitting their final exams at high school thinking about what they want to be after school."
Mr Clare said the plan would cost more than $300 million, including a number of big-ticket items already announced in the federal budget.
Those measures include extra money to train more than 4,000 additional teachers, focusing on students who have traditionally been under-represented in the profession.
The plan will also boost scholarships available in a program aiming to "encourage the best and brightest to become teachers".
Extra funding will also aim to "triple the number of mid-career professionals moving to teaching", through extra funding to initiatives like Teach for Australia.
Overcoming a 'big obstacle'
However, the draft plan does not include money to help fund apprenticeship-style paid degrees, something Mr Clare has previously said he would consider.
He said he would make a call on whether to fund those following a separate review of teacher training, run by Sydney University Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott.
He acknowledged the need to overcome one of the "big obstacles".
"[That is] for people who might be in their thirties or their forties with a mortgage and two or three children is they'd love to become a teacher, but it's really hard to give up being paid for two years to become a teacher," he said.
"If we can overcome that obstacle [then] that means a hell of a lot more people in our local communities that could potentially become teachers."
The Education Department said Home Affairs was also prioritising skilled migration visas in the education sector, as part of the government's 35,000 extra skilled migration places.
It said processing times for teachers had dropped by a month since June 2022, and were down to just two days.
Career progression
The draft plan also looks to address teacher's career progression, with states and territories being required to report how they are improving career pathways by 2024.
This included a requirement that the accreditation authority, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, streamline the process to allow teachers to qualify as "highly accomplished" or "lead" teachers.
Advocates have long said the current process is burdensome, especially given the current teacher-workload issues.
The government will also tender for the delivery of micro-credentials, allowing easier pathways for teachers to upskill mid-career.
Looking at 'what's right, what's wrong'
Speaking to primary school principals in Sydney on Thursday, Mr Clare will say the plan will not solve the problems overnight.
He will also call on stakeholders, and education professionals to give feedback on the plan.
"It took 10 years to create this crisis, and it will take time to fix.
"I want to know what you think of it, what's right, what's wrong, what should be in it, what should be taken out."
Once the plan finalised in December, it will be up to other governments and sectors to work with the federal government on areas such as "salary and workload".
The state and territory governments begin negotiating the next five-year school funding agreement in 2023.
