Non –government teachers remain excluded from the national teaching standards authority.

The federal and state education ministers, through MCEECDYA, have established AITSL as the replacement body for Teaching Australia and have determined that the Board will have representatives of all state/territory government education jurisdictions, Catholic employers’ representative, independent school employers’ representative, the AEU, a principal association representative and a representative of professional teacher associations.

In a recently published article, ‘Recognising Accomplished Teachers in Australia,  Where have we been? Where are we heading?’   Lawrence Ingvarson, makes the point that “The challenge for MCEECDYA and AITSL will be to ensure that teachers and their associations play a major role in planning and operating the certification system for Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers”

From the perspective of non-government teachers, the new body has failed this first test.  This is all the more disappointing considering the work and activity of the IEUA in trying to progress this debate for the last two decades.

The IEUA has long supported the development of a national authority.

Indeed, in the early 1990s the IEUA held Board and Executive positions on the Australian Teaching Council and remained committed and supportive of the work of the Council despite failing interest and effort by governments and employers.

When the Howard Government moved to establish Teaching Australia, the IEUA engaged positively and productively in the developmental phase of that body, only to find that in the final composition of the Board of that body that the union was specifically excluded.

The union’s Branches have also engaged actively and positively in the work of the Institutes/Colleges of Teachers, however named, in jurisdictions across the nation and in the case of NSW for example is a member of the Institute Board.

The decision of the federal minister at MCEECDYA means that both government and non-government employers are represented on AITSL, as are government teachers.  Non-government teachers alone remain unrepresented on this Board.  Our 66,000 members nationally will not have a voice on the deliberations of this authority.

While the IEUA fully supports the position of the AEU on the Board, the AEU has never and does not purport to speak on behalf of teachers in the non-government school sector.

Essentially the decision to allow for only the AEU representative on AITSL’s Board, means that in relation to the work of a national standards authority nothing has changed from the position of the previous government, namely that non-government school teachers in Australia remain excluded from representation on such an authority.

The IEUA has urged the federal minister to rectify this unsatisfactory situation at the earliest opportunity. %28click here to read letter)