Parents want support for teachers
Mental health, school funding and digital literacy are top of mind for parents regarding their children’s education with an overarching concern around support for quality teachers and teaching.
As we enter into the elections the Australian Parents Council have put together a five-point federal election statement sent to Coalition and Labor politicians.
“APC has developed a number of recommended priority issues we believe the next government needs to take action on. I have written to the Education Minister and Shadow Education Spokesperson asking them to commit to tackling them,” APC President Shelley Hill said.
APC is pushing for five issues to be tackled by the next government:
1 Quality teaching and raising the status of the teaching profession
2 Fair and equitable funding based on need for every child, wherever parents choose to send children to school
3 Resourcing and commensurate funding of initiatives and programs to improve the mental well-being of students
4 Digital literacy, digital citizenship and equity of access to technology in schools
5 Positive measures to build strong partnerships between teachers, schools, parents, carers and community.
“Our election priorities were heavily influenced by parents’ views and comments in our 2017 national survey. The number one issue was teacher quality, so this is the number one priority in our election statement. Parents value teachers and many called for more support and better recognition for the important work they do.
“We know that teachers are the biggest in school influence on children’s learning, and we really need to build their professional capacity, support and reward them better. We need to recruit and train the very best and we need to ensure that teachers are able and motivated to stay in the profession and develop their expertise throughout their careers.
“Funding needs to be fair, transparent, but it is now time it was settled. The focus should move on to what is going on in schools and the education of children.
“Parents desperately want comprehensive and accessible help to address mental health issues. It is frightening to see how many young people are suffering and APC would like to see a national strategy introduced with the Federal, state and territory governments working together to address wellness in the curriculum, pastoral care of students, as well as better access to support services in school and the community. Many children are simply not going to be able to thrive at school otherwise,” said Hill.
“Teaching digital literacy and citizenship and equity of access to technology in schools is also hugely important to parents. The world is changing fast and parents struggle to keep up and afford to equip students with appropriate devices, software and online access. It’s a big extra financial burden that should attract tax concessions for families.”
APC also wants a focus on building stronger partnerships between teachers, schools, parents, carers and community.
“We’d rather see some positive measures to help build strong partnerships introduced rather than sit around listening to terrible stories about when things go badly wrong. We need to ask ‘what can we do to make the situation better?’” explained Shelley Hill.
APC is also developing a number of resources to help parents keep up to date with the 2019 federal election, including the new Federal Electorate Mapping Tool, that allows the user to search statistics and school details in each area.
The full 2019 Federal Election Statement is on the APC website.