Alternative Solution to Teacher Shortages

This blog offers an alternative solution to the teacher shortage problem and perceived lack of quality in teaching in public schools.

by Shirin Bahremand

May 11, 2022

The Problem

Teachers are judged to be the problem yet again. An OECD survey found many new Australian teachers felt underprepared for classroom management. It is true, new teachers are underprepared to deal with: daily bullying from students and even physical abuse. The high workload and lack of support from the public school system doesn’t help either. Around 25% of new teachers  leave the profession within the first 5 years. It is not the ATAR scores that are the problem, the problem is the undervaluing of teaching and teachers in Australia which in turn allows them to be treated in a way that is deemed unacceptable in any other workplace. Unlike the popular belief that teachers enjoy many holidays, many new teachers, work well into the night and during school holidays to cater for the needs of their students. 

COVID related teacher shortages, lack of a strategic approach to recruitment and retainment of teachers, combined with growing class sizes and worsening teaching environments have created a perfect storm that will only get worse if steps are not taken to address each problem.

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An Alternative Solution

Adopting a blended learning approach to teaching that offers quality interactive eLearning, together with access to a teacher – in workshop settings can be a part of the solution. Among other benefits it combines higher retention and performance rates offered by high quality eLearning with social motivational factors offered by traditional learning settings.

 

For students high quality eLearning solutions offer:
  • the chance to interact with their learning;
  • the chance to personalise their learning;
  • explore topics at their own pace, in small segments (micro learning);
  • the chance to revisit the course/lesson as many times as needed, to review or retake assessments;
  • the chance to problem solve, through case studies and interactive scenarios;
  • the chance to experience the problem through simulations;
  • significantly better retention and performance outcomes;
  • increase accessibility from mobile phones or laptops; and
  • to have access to the same quality education as other students/participants.
For teachers great eLearning solutions offer:
  • time saving;
  • access to automated completion and assessment data; and
  • the chance to interact with students/participants in a more meaningful way, through for example workshops that offer students the chance to interact with each other and the teacher/trainer while exploring practical aspects of a course.

If quality eLearning solutions are combined with interactive face to face experiences, students can benefit from the best of both synchronous and asynchronous learning.

If political parties want to spend money on education, they should spend it on upgrading public schools with state of the art computer labs, air-conditioning in all state school class rooms and improving other public school facilities and teaching conditions.

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