Time for Business on Teacher Salaries

26 May 2008

Record of an interview given by BCA Chief Executive Katie Lahey to the Radio National ‘AM’ program regarding the BCA paper, Teaching Talent: The Best Teachers for Australia’s Classrooms.

Tony Eastley: A body representing big business wants to see teachers paid more than $100,000 a year in order to improve the quality of education.

Australia's business leaders are reaching back to the school room for a multi-billion dollar solution to the nation’s shortage of maths and science graduates.

The report commissioned by the Business Council of Australia calls for a major overhaul of teachers’ pay and says teachers should have the option of proving that they’re worth up to $130,000 a year.

The Business Council’s chief executive, Katie Lahey, has been speaking to Simon Lauder.

Katie Lahey: All teachers would come in at the base, the registered teacher level. When they’re ready to step up the career path, they would take a certificate that would make them an accomplished teacher or accredit them as a leading teacher.

And this is something quite new that teachers would have a career path, which to most of us makes as absolute commonsense. But at the moment, teachers very early in their careers, hit the $70,000 barrier and if they want to go further, they’ve got to exit teaching.

Simon Lauder: Do you risk creating a class structure within the teaching profession where all the best teachers want to go and teach at certain schools because that’s where they get the best results for their assessment tasks?

Katie Lahey: We don’t think so. This is a voluntary system for a start off, and we anticipate leading teachers being front of the classroom in some of our most disadvantaged schools, and that would be a very, very positive outcome, because that’s where we need our best teachers

Simon Lauder: Part of the Business Council strategy is to introduce a national curriculum, and it refers to an overcrowded curriculum hindering quality teaching. Where’s the fat that needs to be cut, what are teachers teaching that they shouldn’t be?

Katie Lahey: This idea of a national curriculum is also the government’s approach too. And we are very supportive of that, because what we are looking for is students that come out of school, being capable to participate in our economic prosperity, but also being well-rounded enough to be part of our community. And we’re looking for a curriculum that supports that.

Simon Lauder: Which subjects are crowding out the subjects that the Business Council would like to see more of?

Katie Lahey: As I said before, that would be an issue that we would leave to the curriculum experts.

Simon Lauder: Is the Business Council particularly worried about the lack of science and maths graduates in Australia?

Katie Lahey: It’s a world-wide shortage, but it’s particularly emphasised in Australia that we have got a shortage of technical people, engineers. I think the resources boom in Australia has just highlighted that and it’s not a case of just a quick fix, this needs to go back to the school level to be fixed and it’s a long-term plan to increase the number of science and maths graduates in Australia.

Simon Lauder: Now, the whole assessment process you’re asking for is a huge reform and quite a task. Who are you asking to take it on?

Katie Lahey: We’re asking it to be state and federal cooperative effort and we do realise this is a big ask and when we’re anticipating that this would be a 10-year project, it’s expensive, it would cost about $4-billion, so we’re not expecting it to be fixed overnight.

Tony Eastley: The chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, Katie Lahey, speaking there with Simon Lauder.

• Listen to BCA Chief Executive Katie Lahey's interview on ABC Radio National AM