This item was published in the NT Sun on Tuesday 12 February under the heading Teachers under fire.

TEACHERS SHOULD NOT BE PROFESSIONALLY MALIGNED

A lot has been said and written about the need for teachers to be professionals who meet an expanding raft of the developmental needs of students. Educational expectations held for teachers seem to be constantly expanding.

Teaching is more minutely inspected by the community than any other profession. It seems greater responsibility for the bringing up and development of children is placed on teachers and schools rather than on parents and homes. It has become the done thing for some parents and primary caregivers when things go wrong for children, to vent their displeasure on teachers.

The bullying of teachers by a cohort of parents is an issue of growing concern. The Sunday Territorian (Teachers’ bullying crisis, January 27 2019) confirmed that the Australian Education Union (NT) is worried about this trend and its impact on teaching staff. Union secretary Adam Lampe said he was aware of incidents “ … where parents scream and harass teachers constantly in person and online … that can really take a toll … teachers leave their jobs, transfer and even fall into depression – it pushes people to a breaking point.”

Stories from media outlets within the Territory and around Australia are increasingly reporting on matters of teacher abuse. The way in which the personality and character of teachers can be misrepresented and maligned is extremely alarming.

Expectations held of teachers from selection and training through to their delivery of educational outcomes in the classroom, are subject to increasing scrutiny. However, respect for them in personal and professional terms seems to be diminishing.

The Department of Education is on the record as upholding the fact that “ … wellbeing and safety of all … staff is paramount. … The department takes all incidents seriously and does not condone bullying, harassment and violence of any form in schools.” (Op cit)

I believe that teachers are at times reluctant to report matters of bullying behaviour to school leaders because they may be considered as not able to manage unpleasant situations. Contract, limited tenure and relief staff particularly, may feel that raising the issue will adversely affect their future employment opportunities.

It may well be that some school principals, who are on end-dated contracts, feel the same way about reporting these matters to the department. The Teachers Union maintains that a significant number of teacher bullying incidents go unreported.

Most parents are people who develop respectful relationships with their children’s teachers. However, the actions of the minority referred to in recent reports, negatively misrepresent that majority. Bullying and abusive behaviour should be consigned to history.

This column was published in the NT Sun on February 5 2019 under the heading We need to fix our school attendance.

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE UNDERPINS SUCCESS

A recent NT News story (Darwin schools divided 23/1/2019) reported on the disparity of student success between schools. Jason Wells wrote that Darwin’s schools “ … are sharply divided along race and class lines, revealing a family’s relative disadvantage as the single biggest determinant of student outcomes.”

The editorial ‘School data is an outrage’ published the same day suggested “It’s no secret that our family backgrounds bond plays a role in what we’re likely to achieve in life, regardless of our innate abilities.” Both column and editorial infer that the problem of disparity between schools on the basis of NAPLAN success is somehow due to the NT Education Department not ensuring equalisation of income between schools.

The issue of parental contributions (we are not allowed to say fees) is a matter which is the responsibility of individual Government Schools. ‘Reputation’ cannot be conferred by Government or the Education Department: The reputation of individual schools builds from within those schools.

There are issues with NAPLAN that challenge students and their schools that sit outside the scope of Mr Wall’s column. However, the one issue that impacts in universal terms is that of school attendance. Unless children attend school, poor academic performance will be an issue.

Truancy is a long term problem. There have been issues surrounding school attendance in both rural and urban areas in the NT dating back to the 1970’s.

Both Territory and Federal Governments have seized upon non-attendance as an issue that needs to be corrected in our schools. Big dollars have been and are spent on attendance officers.

School attendance officers are employed to monitor attendance. It is their job to encourage reluctant students and non-supportive families toward being more positive in their attitudes about school. They work with students and visit families who find the issue of attendance problematic.

Unless children establish regular habits of school attendance, there will be substantial gaps in what they learn. Yet, when these students perform poorly in tests and assessment, the onus of responsibility is placed back on teachers, schools, the system and government.

School attendance was identified as a key issue in the 2014 Wilson Report on Indigenous Education. However, the report intimated that children attending for 60% of the school week (three days out of five) were satisfying attendance requirements. Part time attendance will not help overcome learning deficits. Quality education depends on full time school attendance.

If truancy is overcome and the attendance issue fixed, perceptions about ‘good and not so good’ schools will largely be overcome.