LESS talk and more action with money needs to occur if the federal government wishes to address issues within the workforce of schools, according to the Australian Education Union state president.
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Terry Polglase said four key proposed reforms raised in the Productivity Commission's Schools Workforce report to be released today, all had merit but would get nowhere if the most fundamental aspect, funding, was not addressed in the public education system.
The report is the third in a series on education and training workforces, and found that although Australia is regarded as delivering good education outcomes at reasonable cost, student literacy and numeracy had declined in recent years.
The country does not address educational disadvantage well.
The report's proposed reforms include improving teacher quality, reducing teacher shortages through pay differentials at difficult schools, ameliorating educational disadvantage with initiatives based on evidence and strengthening the use of evaluation and research in policy making.
Mr Polglase said at a local level the state government's implementation of the Principal Network Leaders and improved induction programs, were to be commended.
``It is early but reports back from staff are very positive and it is an aspect of Tasmanian education that we can be proud of,'' he said.
``Workloads, however, and the lack of release time for teachers to implement the national curriculum and report on student achievement to parents is becoming a major concern.''
was against using pay differentials to attract teachers to hard-to-staff schools.
Mr Polglase said educational disadvantage was addressed in the recent Gonski report and called on the government to implement its recommendations.