Fund Helps Supply of Young Teachers

For many Australian university students in their final year of early childhood, primary and secondary teaching, it’s the weeks of prac that pushes them to their limits financially. 

The problem is particularly acute for mature age students who may need to meet the costs attached to running a family or an adult life while juggling their course requirements.

Seeing this Edith Cowan Uni has established a fund to help aspiring teachers leap the last hurdle to realising their ambitions, offering financial assistance through the Future Teachers Fund to help final year students to meet the costs of their professional placement.

Stories of financial hardship brought on by the last year of a teaching degree are common. For international student Phillippa Combrink, maintaining casual or part-time employment while spending the entire school week working in the classroom was a near impossible juggling act, she took a personal loan to get by. 

“The financial implications were huge, I remember driving from Tapping to Two Rocks Primary School for prac every day, and there was a time my petrol light came on and I had no money to put petrol in my car at that stage,” Phillipa recalled.

Combrink came to Perth just prior to COVID lockdowns in 2020 to be nearer her sister, niece and nephew.

Under Australian law, like all international students, Phillippa is required to pay her tuition fees up front.

“I had to take on quite a lot of different jobs because as a casual worker you generally just do shifts of two to five hours, there were some days I was working three different jobs just to get in enough hours to make enough money to cover my expenses,” she said.

“Having something like the Future Teachers Fund means for students we can take the focus off survival and actually engage with the experience.”

After 16 years as a plumber and gas fitter, with a steady and secure income, a serious back injury prompted mature-age student Jack Lee to chase his lifelong dream of becoming a school teacher.

It’s meant huge sacrifices, for Lee and his supportive long-term partner.

“To do this degree, the biggest sacrifice has been financial. My partner and I have downsized the house, cutdown our spending, got rid of the fancy four-wheel-drive and we now live in a duplex,” Jack said.

“At the moment I am taking jobs wherever I can, hoping nothing goes wrong - like the car breaks down, a pet gets sick or receiving surprise bills.”

Second-year teaching student Hannah Cullen said being awarded a Future Teachers Fund scholarship could be the difference between having to drop out or being able to graduate for many struggling to juggle jobs and study.

“Having that financial assistance would be incredibly helpful, not having to spend so much time working,” Hannah said.

“At the moment to do this it’s about 40 hours of study a week, plus 20 hours of work, you can’t find the time to have a life.”

ECU offers a $5,000 dollar scholarship awarded to students most in need of financial help to get through their final year full-time professional experience placement.  It’s an important initiative to aid the supply qualified teachers in classrooms.

“Out of 800 final year education students that graduate with Edith Cowan University each year, more than 220 report being negatively impacted by their financial circumstances in their final year of study (2021 National Student Experience Survey),” ECU School of Education Executive Dean Professor Caroline Mansfield said.

“We don’t want the cost of living to be a barrier to becoming a teacher.”

Professor Mansfield wants to acknowledge, the University cannot do it alone. ECU is in constant discussions with the State and Federal Governments, but donations from the public and WA business underpin the future of many of tomorrow’s teachers.

“Every donation will truly make a difference for our future teachers and will be a big step forward in answering the call for more qualified teachers needed in classrooms,” Professor Mansfield said.

Image by Samantha Garrote