School holiday reading highlights plight of contract teachers
19 January 2012
Fixed-term teaching contracts proved the big issue over the holidays, with The Age running a series of articles sparked by the AEU's survey into the impact of short-term contracts on Victoria's public school teachers.
The Age highlighted the lack of job security for new teachers in its initial report on the AEU survey, conducted in late 2011, which revealed that more than half of new teachers working in government schools were employed on short-term contracts. Of those, over 70% said this had a negative affect on their teaching.
Half of all new teachers surveyed planned to leave the public system within 10 years, with a third expecting to work in another industry altogether. Respondents blamed a lack of tenure — resulting in job insecurity, loss of holiday pay, and the inability to get a car loan or mortgage — as the most significant factor in their decision-making.
A follow-up story put a human face to the statistics, with primary teacher Annette Scott expressing the stress and frustration felt by teachers on fixed-term contracts.
''Right now, I think working a secure job for minimum wage is more preferable to working in education and going from contract to contract with periods of unemployment in between contracts," she told The Age.
Former teacher Simon Clegg drove home the message, in yet another article on the issue, having made the tough decision to give away teaching altogether after seven years on short-term contracts. During that time, he received holiday pay only once, and moved from Bendigo to Bulleen in an attempt to stay in the profession.
When his contract was not renewed last year, Clegg chose to leave the ''cattle market of teaching'' for a job in childcare.
On a brighter note, Ringwood Secondary College principal Michael Phillips is leading by example, with nine of the 11 graduate teachers he has employed in the past two years now permanent.
''If you don't look after younger people coming into the profession, you potentially run the risk of not having enough teachers in the future,'' Phillips told The Age.
AEU Victorian president Mary Bluett says current levels of contract employment are unacceptable.
"Fixed-term contracts are meant to be used when replacing teachers on maternity, long service leave, those seconded to other roles or to fill positions in schools with declining enrolments," says Bluett. "The reason of potential excess is being over-used."
At the start of January, The Age found that only three of the 73 vacancies for teachers advertised on the Education Department's website Recruitment Online were for ongoing positions, with 34 listed as fixed term due to ''potential excess'' of teachers.
A January Age readers poll showed that 88% of Victorians believe teachers should be given permanent jobs after three years.
The AEU is negotiating for teachers to be made permanent after three years of employment under the new Schools Agreement.
