Funding for future female leaders

Funding from The National Excellence in School Leadership Initiative (NESLI) has been made available to both teaching and non-teaching female staff working in Australia’s K–12 education sector. Grants of up to $1,500 are available, which will cover approximately 40% of course fees for a single program.

If interested you should get a wriggle on as the funds need to be allocated by the end of the calendar year.

In recognising 2018 as the Year of Women in School Leadership, NESLI have undertaken several initiatives aimed at women teachers. In addition to the 2018 Australian Schools Gender Survey, they also held the collaborative Australian Schools Women’s Leadership Summit in April, which was attended by 125 women who aspire to be future school leaders.

While Australia’s Education and Training sector is female dominated (80% of primary school teachers and 58.4% of secondary school teachers are women), the participation rate of women in leadership roles is significantly less. In fact, only 57.5% and 41.7% of principals in each of these sectors are female.  
 
Dr Janet Smith, NESLI Program Director and leader of the Year of Women in School Leadership, has gone on record to announce that she found the results of the Australian Schools Gender Survey “extremely disappointing and problematic,” and has commented that “it is totally unacceptable that in 2018, nearly half of the women teachers who were surveyed have reported experiencing some form of disadvantage or discrimination because of their gender.”

Initial expressions of interest for the funding of up to $1,500 close on December 14th 2018 and can be made through www.nesli.org/funding.