26 May 2008

Australia’s best teachers should be paid almost $130,000 as a key step in recognising their value to society and strengthening the teaching profession, a new BCA paper says.

The paper also recommends creating two new levels of teacher certification beyond initial registration, to allow the best teachers to be recognised as ‘accomplished’ and ‘leading’, as part of a much needed overhaul of remuneration.

The BCA today launched its new paper Teaching Talent: The Best Teachers For Australia’s Classrooms, which calls for a five-point plan to recognise outstanding teachers and to lift the standard of teaching in Australian classrooms.

“Teachers are a key to unlocking our nation’s economic and social potential, but their contribution to society is being greatly undervalued,” the Chairman of the BCA’s Education, Skills and Innovation Task Force, Hutch Ranck, said.

Teaching Talent comprises a paper prepared for the Business Council of Australia by Professor Stephen Dinham, Dr Lawrence Ingvarson and Dr Elizabeth Kleinhenz of the Australian Council for Educational Research titled ‘Investing in Teacher Quality: Doing What Matters Most’. It is preceded by an introduction and recommendations authored by the BCA.

Attention Class: Time to Do Our Sums on Better Teaching (news release)

Teaching Talent: The Best Teachers for Australia’s Classrooms