2022 Victorian election: Australian Education Union hosts candidate forum in Ballarat

At a state election candidate forum on Wednesday night about education, a number of candidates gathered to hear teachers and union representatives discuss the challenges that teachers faced.

Teachers from a number of Ballarat schools highlighted particular issues including job security, overworking, a lack of sick pay for relief teachers, the struggles of TAFE funding and the under-resourced special education areas.

"It is not the same job that it once was, the complexity of the job has been blown out," said Jacki Fowler.

Ms Fowler has been a teacher for 20 years, over this time she has taught in primary and secondary classes, and currently works at Mount Clear College.

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She said in each of her classrooms she is working with a wide range of students who all have different needs.

A third of students in a given class could have additional learning needs as well as a number of students who have mental illness, social, family or financial issues or are trauma affected, she said.

"It is a deceptively simple and extraordinarily difficult answer as to how this gets fixed," Ms Fowler said.

"It is time and money."

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She said the public system needs to have "quality resources and programs" to help students.

Earlier this year the Australian Education Union and the state government came to a new four-year agreement.

This deal included a reduction in face-to-face teaching which will allow teachers more time to plan and mark work.

Ms Fowler said this change was welcomed, but more needed to be done to help other areas of school communities like the health and wellbeing staff.

The forum was organised by the Victorian Branch of the Australian Education Union and in attendance were the Labor and Greens candidate for Eureka, Ripon and Wendouree.

Wendouree Animal Justice Party candidate Bryn Hills, who is also a teacher, was present.

A common theme for the night was discussing how to create working conditions that encourage teachers to stay in the profession.

Some teachers from the audience explained how they are seeing a number of teachers, only a few years into their careers, leaving for jobs that have a better work-life balance.

Ms Fowler said as a young teacher there is still a lot to learn about being in a classroom and a lot of work to do outside of face to face teaching.

As you have more years under your belt you are able to "get over the hump" and become more efficient, she said.

But for many teachers, they leave before that point.

The teachers on the panel said mentoring and more support in the early years of their career would have been helpful.

"I have lots of skills and lots of experience to give, I have no time to do it," Ms Fowler said.

She said the teachers she would be mentoring "do not have the time to receive [help]".

The AEU have a ten year plan to help staffing in the workplace.

This has a number of short term and longer term recommendations the union would like to see implemented.

On Wednesday night, Deputy President of the Victorian Branch Justin Mullaly said they would like to see the implementation of studentship.

This would mean students teachers who are completing their qualifications would be paid a cost of living allowance while they complete their degree.

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He said this was one of the strategies implemented in the 1970s when Victoria was going through a teacher shortage.

Mr Mullaly said it would be "an important gesture" to show that teachers were valued.

He said it would help students focus solely on their placements and learning to become a teacher as well as elevate the status of teaching.

Other programs, like employing teachers who want to retire from the classroom as mentors in school settings are other ways teachers can be supported and feel valued.

Mr Mullaly said he received apologies from one of the Liberal candidates before the forum began.

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