Australian Government Launches Teach for Australia Initiative

Press Conference, The Hon Julia Gillard MP & The Hon John Brumby MLA, 21 April 2009; Media Release, The Hon Julia Gillard MP, 21 April 2009; The Advertiser, 22 April 2009; The Age, 22 April 2009; The Australian, 22 April 2009; Canberra Times, 22 April 2009; Herald Sun, 22 April 09; Sydney Morning Herald, 22 April 2009

The Australian Government Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Ms Julia Gillard has officially launched the Australian Government’s Teach for Australia program, which is aimed at attracting top university graduates into the teaching profession.

Under the program, based on the Teach First program in the United Kingdom and Teach for America in the United States, high-achieving university graduates would undertake an intensive, six-week course before starting a two-year placement in the most disadvantaged schools.

At the same time, the graduates would undertake an accredited teacher education course. The graduates would receive support and mentoring from experienced teachers and business leaders. At the end of the two-year placement, graduates would earn a full teaching qualification. The program will commence in 2010 in Victorian schools, with up to 90 graduates expected to be recruited.

Critics of the proposal have expressed concerns about the prospect of placing inexperienced teachers with the most vulnerable students and claimed that the program would ‘demean’ teaching. The Dean of Education at the University of Sydney, Professor Robyn Ewing, stated that ‘an eight-week program cannot adequately prepare prospective teachers for the range of school contexts they will encounter, especially those that are most challenging’.

Go to the Teach for Australia website for further information on the program. 

 

 

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