South-Eastern Metropolitan Region
Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:10): My question is to the Minister for Education, and I ask: Minister, why are you doing nothing to help Frankston High School year 11 students who in the first four weeks of this term missed up to 10 teacher-led classes due to absent staff, with students instructed to fend for themselves as they completed assignment work on their own? One year 11 student has reportedly had no English teacher for eight sessions over three weeks. Students have enough stress on them, particularly at the VCE level of schooling, without being burdened by a lack of teaching staff. With figures showing that there are currently 490 teaching positions advertised on the department’s internal website, the government’s account that ‘all is well in education’ is simply not true. As for English teachers, I also want to add, as a former teacher myself, that they are not properly rewarded for their skills and the additional hours of marking they work. In my experience English teachers work longer hours than many teachers in other faculties. As they offer the only compulsory secondary school subject, they should be rewarded accordingly.