hink about the last thing that you got for free. Was it a cheap t-shirt that was attached to the front of your favourite glossy magazine? An ugly branded mug from a conference? A USB stick that you won’t ever use? Chances are most of these items are now sitting at a charity shop where no one will ever buy them because everyone knows they were free and as a consequence they have no value.
Raise The University Entrance Score for Tertiary Bachelor of Education Students
You need a UAC score of 90 to study law at the University of Canberra in 2015.
You need a UAC score of 90 to study psychology at the University of Canberra in 2015.
You need a UAC score of 68 to study education at the University of Canberra in 2015… but 54 will get you a spot in a country town university if you move there and pay extra fees.
This is possibly the biggest problem we have in the education industry in Australia.
If a person can’t get through school effectively themselves, they probably aren’t the best candidate to teach our children how to do it. I’d like to see the minimum UAC score be raised to at least 75 across the board with a pay rise to match. I’d also like to see a stop put to rural universities seducing wealthy city kids with their low entrance scores so that they can pay their way to success. It’s so unfair to the students whose parents can’t afford to pay for the ‘gap’ in their UAC scores. [divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
Raise The Pay of Teachers
Graduate teachers in Victoria get paid about $45,000 per year which is the same as a retail store manager with no tertiary qualifications. Completing four years of tertiary education should secure that person a higher salary than if they HADN’T completed four years of tertiary education. That’s what you’d expect for a time investment of that magnitude and it seems to apply to almost every profession but teaching. Graduate lawyers get about $70,000 per year which is $25,000 more than someone without a tertiary degree. Teachers get the same amount as someone without a tertiary degree. It makes four years of university and $30,000 in HECS debt seem like a pretty bad investment for teachers don’t you think? [divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
Give Itemised Financial Statements to Parents Showing That Everyone Pays for Education in Australia
Not everyone in Australia can afford to pay for the education of their child and I’m delighted to live in a country where education is not only available but mandatory to anyone under the age of sixteen. However there is a giant flaw in this system.
As I mentioned previously, people have a hard time valuing things that are free. What I’m suggesting is that every semester, all parents should receive a financial statement of how much it costs for their child to attend school, regardless of whether or not they pay school fees. It’s so important for all families to understand the financial figures of our ‘free’ education system. It’s not free. Not by a long shot and there are too many people who take our amazing government education system for granted. I have taught at schools where some of the parents couldn’t care less about their child’s education. I think people like this would benefit greatly from seeing how much money is being poured into a wasted opportunity. Fee paying families at private schools should also be made aware of how much government support their schools are receiving. Just because a parent isn’t paying fees doesn’t mean their child’s education is free and just because a parent is paying school fees doesn’t mean their child’s education isn’t government supported. [divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
Re-education of Parents
Some parents are brilliant. Some parents however, are less than brilliant. I once had a mother tell me that a colleague of mine was a ‘useless piece of shit.’ This was the same mother who was fanging for the school holidays to end because she couldn’t bear to spend another day with her child in the house. It’s absurd.
Imagine a child’s party with 25 guests. Now imagine this party lasting for 6 hours straight. Now imagine that this same party is going to happen every single week day for a ten week block, four times a year. Now imagine that you’re the only adult there. Oh and the only time you have to prepare for the next day’s party is the night before, after you’ve spent all day hosting THAT day’s party. It sounds insane doesn’t it? 
Teaching is really hard work with very little fiscal rewards. I think all teachers would appreciate not being called lazy pieces of shit when they’ve been successfully keeping 25 students alive, happy and educated for the better part of every week day, a task that most people would find either impossible or completely abhorrent.
It’s incredibly difficult to teach a child to respect a teacher, when their parents don’t respect teachers. A parent may not like their child’s teacher and honestly, the teacher may not like the child but as long as they’re doing their job and safely educating their students, then they deserve respect and support from the parents at their school. [divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
Re-adjustment of Teaching ‘Language’
Some teachers are brilliant. Some teachers however, are less than brilliant. Teaching is commonly and falsely viewed as an ‘easy’ career. 
This is how bad teachers happen. They think that teaching is going to be easy and when they get into the classroom they realise it’s the exact opposite of what they thought it was going to be. They get cranky, they get tired, they get short-tempered and consequently turn into pretty average teachers because they didn’t actually want to be a teacher. They just did it because it was the only course they could get into with their average scores and some idiot told them that you only have to work from 9am to 3pm and then you can go to the pub. Bad teachers do exist and I’m fully aware of that.
However for every teacher who barely scraped through university, there are ten teachers with tops marks, multiple degrees, masters degrees and PHDs. I could have done anything I wanted at university and I chose teaching. I have several friends with PHDs who are public school teachers. The insulting phrase ‘Those who can’t do, teach.‘ needs to be banned from common vernacular immediately and the small percentage of average teachers need to stop being the central representive of teachers as a whole. Almost every teacher I’ve met is extraodinary. Fact.
We need to stop treating our free education system like a cheaply manufactured promotional mug. We need to stop with the ‘easy, lazy, soooo many holidays!’ language aimed at teachers. We need to make teaching a desirable career so that desirable people pursue it and thrive at it. We need to make people value free education and even out the playing field so that it ACTUALLY doesn’t matter where you send your kids to school and so the future of our younger generations isn’t based on how big their parent’s bank account is. [divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
Over to you…