That the AEU Joint Primary and Secondary Sector Council views with significant dismay the policy announcement by Victorian Education Minister, Ben Carroll, on the misnamed 'Making Best Practice Common Practice in The Education State', without proper consultation with the profession and the AEU.
The Minister’s announcement of this major change to mandate explicit teaching in all classrooms from the beginning of 2025, including systematic synthetic phonics approach for all Prep to Year 2 students, without any consultation, demonstrates his lack of respect for the teaching profession, who must be at the centre of any decisions around teaching and learning. No other profession would be treated with the breathtaking disregard the Minister has shown.
Joint Primary and Secondary Sector Council is deeply concerned that the Minister has seen fit to introduce a major change without consultation, at a time when the public school system is under unprecedented stress. Public schools are not fully funded; are dealing with chronic teacher shortages; principals, teachers and education support staff face unsustainable workloads, and are finding it challenging to meet the needs of all students. More change, more workload, less autonomy, and less respect for the profession will simply drive more people to leave.
The Education Minister’s focus should be on ensuring that Victorian public schools are fully funded, rather than making uninformed announcements that will add to the burdens currently experienced by schools. The current school funding agreement leaves Victorian public schools underfunded by an average of $2,611 per student each year.
The Minister and his government must immediately and clearly commit to increase the state government’s contribution to the schooling resource standard to a genuine 75% and continue to pressure the Albanese government to increase their contribution to 25%. This is urgent and it is essential to fund measures to address the issues currently impacting schools and the profession, including the capacity to continue to improve student learning outcomes. Thus far, he has wilfully ignored and therefore failed to properly address chronic staffing shortages or implement strategies to address the unprecedented workload that principals, teachers, and education support staff are facing every day.
Further, Joint Primary and Secondary Sector Council notes with alarm the Minister’s apparent lack of understanding of the curriculum and pedagogy currently required in Victorian public schools. To fail to understand that explicit teaching is already occurring across classrooms every day and that a range of teaching strategies to teach reading, including phonics are required in the current curriculum, shows that the Minister has an inadequate grasp on work already undertaken by teachers and the complexity of that work. It would be impossible for Victorian public school students to lead the nation in Year 3 NAPLAN reading outcomes if Victorian teachers were not currently and competently teaching all skills required to enable students to become proficient readers.
Teachers as professionals have and continue to develop deep pedagogical expertise throughout their careers, based on a detailed knowledge of the context in which they are teaching, the needs of the students in their classes which are increasingly complex, the curriculum and a deep understanding of how students learn in the subject areas they are teaching. This expertise must be respected and supported when teachers make professional decisions about the content and pedagogies appropriate for the learning programs in their classrooms and schools. The capacity of the teaching profession to successfully meet the learning needs of students must be recognised, respected, and supported by the Education Minister.
Joint Primary and Secondary Sector Council acknowledges and supports the need for ongoing evaluation, review, and improvement, and that changes in approaches to teaching and learning have, will, and should occur over time. However, any change must occur in collaboration with the profession, not dictated to the profession. Schools must also be provided with additional resources, as well as ample time and opportunity to implement changes.
Joint Primary and Secondary Sector Council notes, that this announcement has thrown open the door for the public discourse to once again blame, attack, and undermine the profession. Central to the education Minister’s job, as previous education Ministers in the state Labor government have done consistently, is to amplify the exemplary work undertaken by teachers and leaders, and support staff in schools, demonstrating genuine respect for the profession, rather than fuel a negative debate against them for their own political purposes.
The AEU Victorian Branch demands Minister Carroll and the Allan government immediately:
- consult regarding the so-called 'Making Best Practice Common Practice in the Education State'
- acknowledge the outstanding work of Victorian public school staff
- fully and clearly commit to increasing the state’s share of the SRS to a genuine 75%
- implement workload reductions, as excessive workload remains the number one reason teachers leave the profession
- prioritise measures and investment to fix the teacher shortage by taking steps to address attraction and retention, including implementing the strategies outlined in the AEU’s Ten Year Plan for Staffing in Public Education, including retention payments.
The failure of the Minister and the Department of Education to properly consult on the changes announced yesterday is a wilful breach of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022 (VGSA) and, as such, members are advised not to take any action to implement the changes announced. Consultation as required by VGSA clauses 12(5), 12(16), and 29(1), and subsequent changes to what has been announced that may arise from that consultation, is the only proper basis for the implementation of any changes.
The AEU demands an urgent meeting with Minister Carroll to pursue the issues outlined in this resolution.
This resolution was passed unanimously.