A senior Coalition backbencher has criticised the "soothing" approach to school reforms being pursued by the government, arguing teachers should spend eight hours at work each day, get just four weeks annual leave, and should not be marking or doing class preparation at home.
And he says, the expert brought in to advise successive governments, businessman David Gonski, had ducked these “industrial” rigidities in order to avoid “World War III” with teachers’ unions.
Prominent Queensland MP Andrew Laming has even suggested Mr Gonski told governments what they wanted to hear, meaning he told Labor how much extra money could be ploughed in and then told the Coalition how it could be spent.
But he said Mr Gonski had ignored the critical area of longstanding formal and informal work arrangements of teachers including excessive holiday periods which mirrored those of the children they teach.
In brash comments putting him at odds with powerful education unions, and even the Prime Minister whose daughter Daisy is a teacher, Dr Laming said teachers would have a stronger case if they worked a “regularised” 38-hour week for 48 weeks a year, like everyone else.
“Teaching needs to operate like other jobs, with the same hours, days and weeks as the rest of the economy, rather than cluttered school hours where there it is little beyond the face-to-face time,” he told Fairfax Media.
“Gonski skirted these workplace issues and opted for soothing words to keep all parties at the table.”
But the Australian Education Union's federal president, Correna Haythorpe rejected the backbencher's views arguing instead that annual leave and daily hours were "dictated by the reality of education across Australia".
She denied there was an informal trade-off between the extra annual leave teachers enjoy and the unpaid extra work done out of hours.
Dr Laming said the profession was poorly structured to attract and retain the best quality teachers because the top pay increment can be attained by the age of 30 which is “twice as fast as the OECD average”.
He acknowledged that some teachers go "above and beyond" and that many undertake additional hours for marking and class preparation, but he said these things were neither measured, nor assured.
“This is completely unquantified, invisible time.
“There is just no evidence that the work they are doing at home makes any difference, and there’s no evidence that what they do at home is actually where you’d want a teacher focusing their efforts."
"Unions have proudly secured equal pay for the worst teacher and best, perpetuating the culture."
Ms Haythorpe, said Dr Laming's suggestion ignored "what we've got, in terms of our working conditions and our teaching-learning conditions around the country through the school year".
She said the Gonski process had considered teaching versus learning time, workforce planning and improved induction and mentoring programs.
"I think the Gonski report really goes to the heart of those issues," she said.
In an opinion piece to be published in Fairfax Media papers on Wednesday, Mr Gonski finds some common ground with Dr Laming conceding the career structure for teachers needs attention.
"Continuous improvement is just as important for teachers as it is for students," he writes.
"There should be a focus on teachers in the beginning of their careers by providing structured support and development.
"Teachers deserve to be paid well. Our report advocates strongly that instead of teachers' salaries plateauing as they do now unless they become principals – those who wish to continue as high-performing teachers should be able to earn more."
