ATAR Notes: Forum
General Discussion => General Discussion Boards => News and Politics => Topic started by: Orb on February 18, 2019, 09:51:50 am
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Proposal includes up to $10k per year in bursary support with the condition that the recipient works in the public school system for as many years as they received the bursary for.
Thoughts? Would this increase the # of quality teachers a) in the system and b) in the public school system? Or would it turn into potentially a Teach for Australia where a lot of positive outcomes are achieved in the short-term but still suffering from a low long-term retention rate?
Also additionally would the addition of this bursary really be the sole difference helping students make teaching their first choice as opposed to a backup plan?
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From what I understand the bursary would be available to to "high achieving" students at highschool/university and maintaining this in uni. Not sure exactly how high and what the requirements would be but it could be something like 90+ atar although completely a guess on my part.
I think it's good at least that they are trying to find something to fix this issue of teaching in Australia but I don't know how effective it will be. I think it will increase the number of quality teachers but not significantly enough to say that the issue is fixed and not for the long-term. It also may attract the wrong people to the profession who would've done something else if not for the bursary. I don't like the idea of people choosing teaching just for the 40k - students who actually don't want to do Teaching but are encouraged by the bursary to take that path may just drop teaching after the have fulfilled their commitment.
Not sure whether students will actually change what they want to do for the bursary - in reality these "high-achieving" students will probably be smart enough to know that they will easily be able to make that up and exceed that in other fields if that is their goal and what they care about. They should also realise that it will always be better in the long-term to choose something they actually want to do not something that has been forced upon them.
Also would like to add, regardless of someone's reasons for choosing teaching - be it the bursary or anything else. If this proposal is able to increase the quality of teachers and increase the quality of education in Australia I am all for it.