Editorial: Modern pupils’ complex needs put teachers under strain

As we pass the halfway mark in the seemingly endless school summer holidays, some parents are no doubt looking with increasing longing at the calendar for the start of Term 1, 2023.

Having your own children in your own house for weeks on end can be difficult enough.

Imagine if you had 32 of them, and were unable to shut them in the lounge room with a gaming console for a few hours of respite.

That’s what confronts some of our overworked public school teachers when class returns next month.

The new president of the State School Teachers Union says the 32-student threshold is creating an unmanageable workload for teachers.

When the upper limit was set four decades ago, a class of 32 kids was a far different proposition to what it is today, Matt Jarman said.

With more children displaying challenging behaviours or having formal diagnoses, being a teacher is harder than ever before.

“So we need to adapt to that, and one of the ways is to do something about class sizes, because it is unmanageable to deal with 32 children where five or six of them may have an imputed or recognised diagnosis,” Mr Jarman said.

In order to cut class sizes, WA will need more teachers.

Already, secondary schools are struggling to fill their rosters, particularly in the subject areas of science and maths.

Mr Jarman’s comments follow a survey of more than 5000 teachers nationwide which found only 28 per cent of respondents planned to stay in their occupation long term. Thirty per cent said they intended to leave within the next five years. One of the key elements that survey highlighted was a perceived lack of respect by the public for the profession.

With staff shortages already starting to bite and fewer young people considering careers in education, we are about to find out the hard way just how important teachers are.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by WAN Editor-in-Chief Anthony De Ceglie