QLD TEACHERS AND STUDENTS URGENTLY NEED FULL FUNDING, NEW RESEARCH SHOWS
The urgent need for the full funding of state schools is underlined in new research which reveals acute teacher shortages across Queensland, unsustainable teacher workloads and alarming declines in student and teacher wellbeing.
The AEU’s 2024 State of our Schools survey results are being released today at a campaign event in Brisbane, where 1250 miniature schools will cover the lawns of Brisbane’s City Botanic Gardens highlighting the unacceptable reality that QLD state schools are underfunded by $1.6 billion a year.
In the survey of 2,367 QLD state school principals and teachers, conducted in March and April:
- 78% of principals reported teacher shortages at their school in the last year. More than half the principals (54%) said they had unfilled teaching positions at the time of the survey – the highest proportion of any state.
- Almost half the principals said they were regularly or constantly reducing the range of specialist classes offered due to the shortages and 32% said they were regularly or constantly merging classes.
- The proportion of teachers who describe their school as significantly under-resourced has jumped from 7% in 2020 to 35% this year.
- Over 70% of principals and teachers reported a decline or significant decline in student wellbeing and engagement in the past 18 months. 65% of teachers reported a significant decline in teacher wellbeing and morale – the highest proportion of any state or territory.
- Eight out of ten principals said the level of counsellor support at the school was inadequate and one quarter said children were waiting longer than four weeks, on average, to see a counsellor.
- Workloads remain unsustainable, with 1 in 5 teachers working 55 hours plus a week. The number of teachers committed to staying until retirement has halved from 40% in 2020 to 20% this year.
AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said QLD state schools are funded below the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), which is the minimum level governments agreed a decade ago was required to meet the needs of students.
“The challenges are too great and the cost of inaction too high for governments to continue to fail on funding,” she said.
“The proportion of QLD teachers who say their school is significantly under-resourced has dramatically increased, showing that funding increases are not matching the increases in the needs of students.
“The diversity and complexity of student needs has never been greater, and teachers and principals are reporting alarming declines in student and teacher wellbeing.
“Teacher shortages are having a detrimental impact on teaching and learning with schools forced to merge classes, run classes without a teacher and reduce the range of specialist classes offered.
“QLD state school principals and teachers are doing an extraordinary job, but they are being asked to do too much with too little. We are in danger of losing many more teachers, with unsustainable workloads their number one concern.
“Fully funding state schools is the only way to ensure every child gets the support they need to succeed, and we can recruit and retain sufficient numbers of teachers. There needs to be additional teachers and counsellors, along with more support staff and specialist staff, such as speech therapists.”
The AEU research comes after an inquiry, ordered by Education Ministers, warned in December that the underfunding of public schools is “undermining other reform efforts with real implications for student educational and wellbeing outcomes, teacher attraction and retention”. The Expert Panel that conducted the inquiry said the need for full funding was “urgent and critical” and it was a prerequisite for student learning and wellbeing improvement.
QLD Minister for Education Di Farmer said on May 12: “We have more disadvantaged schools in regional, remote and rural communities than anywhere in the nation. There is no way I can explain to them or any other Queensland school that they don’t deserve 100 per cent funding.”
In the AEU survey, QLD principals said students with disabilities or learning difficulties and those who have fallen behind in literacy or numeracy would be the biggest beneficiaries if public schools were fully funded.
Teachers listed additional support for students with disability or behavioural issues and more time within their paid hours for lesson planning, assessment and reporting as changes that would most assist them to improve student outcomes.
Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson said the survey results highlighted the critical importance of the QLD and Federal government reaching an agreement this year to fund state schools at 100% of the SRS.
“Our students and teachers are giving 100%, now we need the politicians to do the same,” she said.
“It’s time for the Prime Minister to step up and lift the federal SRS share from the current 20% to 25% by 2028.
“The QLD Government needs to fund a genuine 75% of the SRS by 2028. That means getting rid of the accounting tricks that artificially inflate the QLD funding share by 4% through the inclusion of non-school spending.”
Ms Richardson said QLD state schools are officially funded at 90.5% of the SRS this year but once the 4% of non-school spending was factored in the true figure was 86.5%.
By contrast, QLD private schools are overfunded at 103% of the SRS this year.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Meriel Killeen, 0466 393 485
Melissa van der Haak, 0484 674 958
