Facing Facts

Launched on the 6th of November 2023, Facing the Facts: A Review of Public Education in Western Australia continues to have an impact.

The review was commissioned by the State School Teachers Union of WA and independently conducted by a distinguished panel, Dr Scott Fitzgerald, Colin Pettit, Dr Robyn White, led by Dr Carmen Lawrence and supported by Pam Pollard.

Facing the Facts frankly describes how things are and how we got here - but does not seek to attribute blame. It simply calls on everyone to accept the objective reality that the public education system is in trouble and offers a constructive, coherent and positive approach so we can go forward together.

The report is constructed around five major areas that explore cascading impacts:
1 Major educational policy changes in just over a decade with detailed history provided in three extensive appendices:
• Major legislative and policy changes in WA;
• The Independent Public Schools initiative; and
• Changes in curriculum, assessment and reporting.

2 Funding and staffing.
3 Social changes - student attitudes, behaviour and mental health.
4 Impact on teachers - workload, satisfaction, turnover, performance.
5 Student achievement and satisfaction.

'The profession is at breaking point and requires immediate steps to improve education delivery and morale.'
Facing the Facts; A Review of Public Education in Western Australia, p107

Each of these sections contain observations, discussion and considered conclusions derived from extensive face to face consultation, 127 oral and written submissions, with 29 submissions from organisations.

Equally important, its conclusions are derived from research, based on 121 references.

Derived from consultation and research, the review concludes findings and makes 46 recommendations.

The essential message of Dr Lawrence’s report is that:
• Teachers and school leaders feel undervalued, disrespected and exhausted.
• Many have left the profession.
• Many have reduced their hours to cope.
• Many are considering leaving the profession.
• Fewer people are interested in joining the profession.

Nonetheless, there are also many sticking at it and some brave souls entering the fray. We owe it to all of them, their students, the families and the wider community to ensure the findings and recommendations of this report are understood and acted upon.

Teaching and school leadership has always been hard and demanding work - but the profession is now at breaking point - not just the sheer hours of work people undertake with diligence and dedication, but the growing complexity and intensity of the workload, the way the world has changed and the way kids and families have changed.

'The cumulative impact of frequent policy changes, including the increased isolation of schools generated by the IPS initiative, has steadily increased both the intensity and complexity of workloads, lowered morale, increased burnout and created an environment where teachers feel undervalued and disrespected. Many teachers, particularly in disadvantaged schools, are paying a high personal price for staying in the profession.'
Facing the Facts; A Review of Public Education in Western Australia, p6

Paradoxically, these burdens have grown exponentially while system support has been consistently reduced and centralised.

Ultimately it is children and young people who lose out.

It is time to reset the strategic direction and narrative with clear core expectations. Change is unrelenting and the whole system needs a visible, coherent theory of change and system support strategically aligned to implementation of change. This is borne out not only in Facing the Facts, but in Hamilton and Robinson’s Understanding and Reducing the Workload of Teachers and Leaders in Western Australian Public Schools.

'It is the cumulative impact and relentless nature of all the tasks and requirements that drives the problem of workload intensification.'
Understanding and Reducing the Workload of Teachers and Leaders in Western Australian Public Schools, p3

So, support for teachers and school leaders has fallen away - along with status, recognition and pay. Reduced class sizes, real and accessible support and reasonable expectations - along better pay and conditions - are core to easing the burden, improving attraction and stemming the tide of resignations. 

Our communities are full of teachers who could be part of the solution but who simply feel they can no longer pay the price; Our schools are full of people wondering how much more they can take.

'Our analysis indicates that the problem goes to the more fundamental question of whether the job of teaching as currently performed and organised is doable and sustainable.'
Understanding and Reducing the Workload of Teachers and Leaders in Western Australian Public Schools, p6

Facing Facts - It’s Time to Fix Education in Western Australia
The State School Teachers Union of WA is not affiliated with any political party. We are calling on all candidates in the forthcoming State election to face the facts, consider our position and the ample evidence to support it - and commit to action on:

1 More funding and better expenditure - keeping pace and driving improvement.
To address rising costs, compensate for repeated cuts and build a better and fairer public education system, the education budget must be increased. Additional funding cannot on its own improve public education, but the reforms so desperately needed require further investment.

The Western Australian government should continue to work with the Commonwealth to increase per student funding to public schools, restoring funds previously cut and address the inequitable underfunding of public compared to non-government schools.

As a minimum, WA public schools should be funded to 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard. This requires public school funding to be truly at least 100% of the SRS - without a portion of these funds going to regulatory authorities (that serve all systems and sectors), transport - and without the discount for depreciation applied to public schools, ie: the state government should reinstate, as additional funding, the four per cent allocated to items not previously included in the SRS. Such a reform would enable funding for progressive reduction in class sizes as well as providing better supports and services to students, teachers and school leaders.

2 Class sizes - making the work of teachers doable, effective and sustainable.
To reduce teacher workloads and improve student outcomes, class sizes in WA public schools must be reduced; WA public school classes are the highest in the country. The SSTUWA seeks the most substantial reductions to be made in schools with significant proportions of students who are educationally disadvantaged, and across Pre-Primary and Years 4 to 10.

Class sizes have not changed, even as the complexity of student needs has continued to grow since the early 1980s. Smaller class sizes lead to better educational outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged groups. Multiple global studies, the efficacy of which has never been called into question, continue to reveal smaller class sizes help students to perform better in the short and longer term, are less likely to require remediation such as repeating school years, less likely to truant, are less frequently subject to disciplinary measures and more likely to stay in education for longer (Facing the Facts, p55). Reduced class sizes are essential to improving teacher capacity to address their students’ needs, improving teacher satisfaction, reducing teacher workload and addressing teacher burnout. They are therefore essential to improving teacher attraction and retention.

3 School Infrastructure - safe, healthy, inviting and effective learning environments.
To deliver immediate and ongoing capital works improvements the WA state government must commence an ambitious and long overdue public school building investment program.

Giving WA public students and their local communities shared community infrastructure provides an immediate and long-term investment return to the future of WA and delivers a social dividend to the wider community.

Public school students and the schools they attend should be provided with world class education infrastructure.

4 Staffing Schools - teacher and school leader attraction and retention in regional WA.
To improve regional attraction and retention, public school staffing processes, incentives, supports and working environments must be improved. The centralisation of services and growth of the Independent Public School model has not met the needs of students or staff in regional WA.

Current staff selection processes have reduced the ability to move between schools, creating additional difficulty in staffing regional and remote schools as well as metropolitan schools with a concentration of disadvantage. The attachment of teacher positions to individual schools rather than the Department of Education has produced inequities in schools’ access to experienced staff. There are growing perceptions of unfairness in recruitment processes and unacceptably high levels of duplication of effort. Reform in placement processes must occur alongside improvements in staff housing and in support services for regional students, teachers, school psychologists and school leaders.

5 Government Regional Officer Housing (GROH) - housing availability, cost, quality, safety and security for regional and remote educators.
To attract and retain teachers, school leaders and school psychologists housing must be improved.

The post-war mining boom of the 1950’s led to the creation of Government Housing for government employees, (enacted by the GEHA Act 1964). For the next forty-one years, this was successful in providing housing that enticed workers to regional and remote locations - until two rounds of machinery of government announcements. The consequence of these 2006 changes has been a loss of housing stock, employees often living in unacceptable temporary arrangements for significant periods of time and creating an overall disincentive for public sector employees to work in regional WA.

Lack of housing, poor quality housing, cost of housing and matters of home maintenance, safety and security are significant barriers to attracting and retaining teachers, school leaders and school psychologists.

6 Support and services for students, teachers and school leaders - properly resourced and in or close to schools across WA.
To better serve students and address the workload implications of growing student disadvantage and complexity, adequate levels of local support must be provided. Support services must be reviewed to ensure they are more accessible, more responsive to local needs and better resourced to support schools’ administrative and educational needs.

The centralization of services is not meeting the needs of schools for educational and administrative support. Teachers and school leaders are over-burdened and students are missing out. Well-resourced support services, both within schools and based in district offices, are essential to ensure relevance and timely access. The implementation of further change in public schools should be based on more effective system-level planning, including prior consultation with teachers, school leaders and the SSTUWA to prevent imposing growing and competing workload demands on staff.

7 Aboriginal Education - Practical steps to Close the Gap.
To provide culturally safe and responsive approaches for students, families, communities and staff, whole-of-system reform must be implemented.

A comprehensive strategy to encourage culturally responsive leadership and develop concrete actions to support the implementation of the Aboriginal Cultural Standards Framework must be implemented. This will require attention not only to the proposals above, but particular attention to culturally safe and responsive services that are designed to meet the needs of all children and young people, particularly those who are most vulnerable due to disadvantage and complex needs - amongst whom Aboriginal children and young people are grossly over-represented.

There must be strong and authentic student, family and community engagement as well as place-based co-design if we are to impact connection, attendance, aspiration, learning and achievement.

8 Safety in Schools - Improving behaviour and reducing violence and aggression.
To ensure everyone in every school community feels safe and able to engage in their learning or their work, a comprehensive and strategically coordinated approach must be implemented as a matter of urgency. The causes of inappropriate behaviour, violence and aggression are manifold - they require a commensurate response.

Keeping our schools safe demands targeted programs in concert with the broader reforms outlined the eight other areas of reform and improvement.

9 The Early Years - The best start possible for every child.
To meet the needs of children, a whole-of system program must be implemented to improve school readiness and deliver effective early intervention where it is required, especially among children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Addressing children’s needs, especially in the earliest years, has implications for and beyond education. It goes to the growing complexity of needs as well as the impact of growing disadvantage and challenges in communities. Better support for infants and children is required to ensure school readiness and sufficient wellbeing and security to effectively engage in schooling. The SSTUWA calls for a joined-up response across government. Better school engagement and educational achievement will ultimately assist in reducing harms and improving the prospects of children to thrive, as well as decreasing costs across all human services.

Read more:
The full report, Facing the Facts; A Review of Public Education in Western Australia, and related resources can be found on the SSTUWA website. Facing Facts: It’s time to fix education in Western Australia, the SSTUWA position on the WA state election 2025 will be available online soon.
Understanding and Reducing the Workload of Teachers and Leaders in Western Australian Public Schools can be found on the WA Department of Education website.

Image by Steven Storm