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Addressing national teacher shortages

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) has supported the announcement from the federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare MP, that a teacher workforce roundtable will be held on 12 August.

<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Bringing state and territory education ministers&comma; principals&comma; teachers and education experts to the table to discuss the critical issue of teacher shortages in Australia will help accelerate solutions&period; It is vital that we take a national&comma; collaborative approach that involves all states and territories along with key stakeholders such as initial teacher education &lpar;ITE&rpar; providers&comma;” said AITSL CEO&comma; Mark Grant&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We must consider all viable options for resolving our national teacher shortage&period; Our 4 million school students deserve a quality teacher in every classroom&comma; every day&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; Mr Grant cautions&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our national focus on increasing supply in the teacher workforce to meet current and future demand must not compromise quality teaching&comma; which is the biggest in-school influence driving positive outcomes for students&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>AITSL is working with states and territories to provide critical data that gives a clear picture of supply issues across the nation&comma; and the picture is stark&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Data from our Australian Teacher Workforce Data &lpar;ATWD&rpar; initiative tells us that we don’t have enough people entering the ITE pipeline to meet current and future shortfalls&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That data&comma; published late in 2021&comma; shows that 1 in 4 members of the teacher workforce indicated they were likely to leave the profession before they retire &lpar;25&percnt;&rpar; and more than 1 in 10 intended to leave &lpar;13&percnt;&rpar; in under 10 years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We also know that around 16&percnt; of our teaching workforce is approaching retirement age&period; At the same time&comma; the Australian Bureau of Statistics has projected a 21&percnt; increase in the number of students starting school in 2030&comma; compared with those starting in 2021&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Grant continues&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The solution to teacher shortages is not a quick fix&comma; but by analysing both supply and demand&comma; we will know the extent of the problem we are facing and can ensure fit-for-purpose solutions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Many options are currently being considered&comma; including attracting qualified teachers from overseas&period; This isn’t an easy task – data released by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics in 2020 estimated that 69 million teachers would be needed worldwide in the years to 2030&period; And this was before the impacts of COVID hit our global community&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;AITSL&comma; as the provider of the skills assessment services to teachers who wish to migrate to Australia&comma; will continue to work with states and territories to maximise opportunities in this space&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For more information and to read the ATWD Report visit <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;u26892420&period;ct&period;sendgrid&period;net&sol;ls&sol;click&quest;upn&equals;HyZW1gd57mn8nhTC3u0zheW1Dq79MUevb-2B5T3XG-2FiIakHe10Y-2BI7VwAgCf1wKROnjuTWp0FB676mmnabZ-2FM2cfHTLdCv4XxWSuDmzAH2FCiTNPPz5q1EF-2FwVdig82GCNL-lN&lowbar;XvxxD007k0Bl2z7OxVGNETKNnzyr47vkT3ug3GHJOz3IaYL0mVlIA6Lbef1YqNA-2FEJwpgv9ZdNlJkVY5-2BFfTxDl-2FjVqrZ7eHImetruWParchICN2joOgwe2EnYedoylqEziiHrJkZQBiwEhSUa4-2FwhKLovl8soboa9tl9zlG1Y-2BCDV-2F99mCVZrq5PZpkzzL-2BVQezjWk-2F4jAJ341-2BWQKdcyrgTYZ59L1R5RvcGeQd7ApskOucPcCXGoUD86QGhYb5MuhUMS37fZJqAXlp-2BFfLVnTdaqxQSAA89TasrrgBzDm469HMTx5DMnMbf3zUkhX68yFYrRNguJb833HLNuDhcsrFKvuxnMZRUL2rOP-2BGr-2FM67KKbcNnZkeGhfIf6v3H6">www&period;aitsl&period;edu&period;au&sol;research&sol;australian-teacher-workforce-data&sol;atwdreports<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Stay up to date with all the latest School news with our <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;school-news&period;com&period;au&sol;latest-print-issue&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">latest print edition here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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