Their delight in hearing that the local teacher shortage may be overcome by overseas and retired teachers being welcomed back soon soured when the reality of getting local teacher registration was explored.
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Lucy wrote “if a teacher lives overseas for more than five years we cannot register as a ‘normal’ experienced teacher, we are ‘provisional’ and on the bottom of the pay scale – even though we have previously been satisfactorily registered. A friend who has been head of maths at an international school for over a decade has been told in Tasmania that because she taught the NSW curriculum that she needs to be ‘provisional’ in Tasmania. I was told that I was provisional even though I’d graduated from Melbourne University and taught in Victoria. The last time I registered it took 12 months to get just a ‘provisional’ teacher registration.”
A senior teacher returning to the classroom, whether from retirement or overseas, is hardly likely to accept being paid at the bottom of an already underwhelming pay scale.
If the various state governments are serious about welcoming overseas and retired teachers back, they will need to find a way to fast track the registration process and even consider mutual recognition to overcome what is otherwise a burdensome barrier to the classroom.
While nobody wants open slather, there are clearly hundreds of qualified, willing and reliable candidates who are deterred by a bureaucratic nightmare.
This week Denmark announced an end to wearing masks except in hospitals and aged care homes, so we get a glimpse of what comes next. The fate of the Morrison government in the looming election [probably in May], and then the Andrews government in November’s state poll substantially depend upon it.
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School and work resumption now depends on the availability of RAT kits. With Wednesday’s announcement of local manufacturing, the urgency with which supplies have been secured is portrayed by both the state and federal governments as evidence of their preparedness to do “whatever it takes”.
Sadly, the frantic catch-up efforts are ample proof of the opposite.
Back in July and August 2021, then state Liberal leader Michael O’Brien demonstrated a RAT kit on the steps of state parliament. In a rare ‘cut-through’ moment, he called on the Premier, and Health Minister Martin Foley to commit to the newly promoted technology instead of relying on PCR testing, which then was already both costing a fortune and starting to suffer from processing delays.
Both the Premier and the minister dismissed O’Brien’s press conference as a stunt and declared RAT kits were not accurate enough to be relied upon.
O’Brien is far too polite to say “I told you so”, but if the state and federal governments would accept that good policy and ideas can come from outside their own ranks, we might be in better shape this far into the pandemic.
How to tackle the teacher shortage
Source: Philippines Alive
