Education Minister Rob Stokes says he shares “concerns that a teacher’s core role of educating children in the classroom can be adversely affected by the administrative burden,” in a letter to Federation, dated 1 June.
This letter was in response to a briefing provided to the minister’s office by Federation’s Senior Officers of the initial results of the survey and research project, Understanding the work of schools — the foundation of teaching and learning.
The Minister wrote: “Indeed the findings of the University of Sydney study — that 97.3% of the 18,000 surveyed teachers have reported an increase in administrative duties over the past five years — highlights why reducing this administrative workload is one of my highest priorities.”
It is clear that the enormous response of more than 18,000 teachers, executives and principals has demonstrated the urgency of the excessive workload created by the many administrative demands made by the Department.
The research project, which will not be finished until Federation’s Annual Conference in July, will provide further information not only about excessive workload demands but the work activities that teachers, executives and principals believe are the most important and require additional resources. It will also include survey participants’ strategies for supporting teaching and learning and reducing excessive workload demands.
Federation has a meeting scheduled with the Department for June 8, to provide a briefing on the initial findings and discuss a process to investigate and pursue the issue of increasing administrative workload.
Advice will be provided to members about the progress of the discussions.