3.0 Reduce workload
It is not surprising that teachers and education leaders cite the enormous increase in workload as the key driver of their dissatisfaction with their chosen profession, and the reason why they are leaving teaching.
The pressure is felt in a myriad of ways, but significantly it has affected the health and wellbeing of those working in schools (QLD teacher workload study, 2022). Schools continue to support students from diverse and often challenging backgrounds, and this complexity has an impact upon the workload of teachers and education leaders. A mammoth increase in administrative compliance tasks and paperwork has led to educators spending their time filling in documentation that has nothing to do with their day-to day-teaching of students. Unprecedented changes to professional expectations, such as capability development and pedagogical approaches, as well as changes to the Australian Curriculum, have added to this workload burden (Heffernan, Bright and Misol, 2022). In an environment in which student/class profiles are increasingly complex, planning and preparation expectations and the push for detailed differentiation to verify funding decisions are further drivers of exhaustion. These workload demands would be effectively reduced if the recommendations of the Comprehensive Review of School Resourcing were to be funded and implemented by the Queensland Government. A well-resourced system with supported and respected teaching professionals will result in better student outcomes. Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions!
Key workload reduction goals are as follows.
3.1 Reduce crushing administrative demands and compliance paperwork tasks
The roles and responsibilities of teachers, heads of program and school leaders should be considered through a lens of realistic expectations. This is an obligation under the certified agreement’s “Principles of Good Workload Management” clause. As such, DoE must take all reasonable steps to support safe and healthy work practices. The effective use of regional offices’ support services and staff would assist schools in this endeavour. The following would help reduce expectations related to administrative demands.
- Implement the recently developed simplified school review processes, undertake a review of this process after 12 months to measure its suitability, and ensure sufficient support and resources are provided for schools to implement recommendations.
- Implement simplified capability development programs that reduce workload.
- Develop a “workload assurance process” that would consider the impact upon schools of all new systemic/regional initiatives and trials, and negotiate the details of such initiatives with the QTU.
- Require appropriately staffed regional offices to undertake the many administrative tasks that are not key to delivery of education in schools, and determine the tasks that are “essential” vs “nonessential” and reallocate accordingly.
- Require central/regional offices to retrieve easily accessible OneSchool data without school involvement, to limit the number of surveys that education leaders are required to undertake.
- Increase regional support staff for graduated return to work (GRW) processes and simplify paperwork requirements, to reduce the administration burden related to rehab and workplace health and safety (WHS) matters.
- Centrally fund what have until now been internally resourced additional instructional leadership and administrative roles funded by schools to support their foundational operation and improvement agendas, and recognise that school-purchased resourcing is now effectively base-level resourcing.
- Require a regional “liaison officer” to manage engagement with families and provide practical support relating to chronic poor student attendance issues for schools.
- Improve the subpoena process to allow regional/central office and legal branch to retrieve they information they require about students, rather than making this a school responsibility.
- Streamline operational digital platforms and undertake system/process redesign to mitigate a lack of reciprocal interaction between digital platforms, e.g. OneSchool, QLearn, MyHR, MyHRWHS, SBS-Finance, SBS-Staffing, and BEMIR, and additional (duplicate) mandatory data entry into OneSchool.
3.2 Prioritise non-contact time (NCT)
Negotiate significantly increased resourcing for additional NCT across all sectors. Ensure parity, in terms of the quantum of NCT, between the primary/special school sectors and the secondary sector. Develop a systemic culture that respects teachers’ autonomous use of NCT.
3.3 Encourage professional release time
Highlight the value of capability and professional development meetings and other professional systems tasks in which educators participate, by negotiating additional resources and release time to support these endeavours. Additional professional release time would allow for meetings focused upon:
a. collaborative capability development with colleagues
b. planning collaboration
c. moderation processes
d. feedback conversations
e. meaningful and ongoing professional development collaboration.
3.4 Reduce professional demands
Negotiate and implement new joint statements that reduce workload and free educators from burdensome “compliance” approaches related to:
a. moderation
b. planning and preparation
c. data collection
d. capability development
e. classroom observations.
Adopt a long-term approach to this work and encourage a “systems” approach, rather than a school-byschool approach that increases workload and expectations.
3.5 Commit meaningfully to reducing class sizes
Smaller class sizes will assist with addressing and supporting matters that arise out of social disadvantage, the “tyranny of distance” that our remote and rural communities experience, and the challenges that students with disabilities face in accessing education. Improvements in the learning environment will lead to:
a) positive impacts upon teacher job-satisfaction levels and morale
b) reduction in teacher workload
c) academic gains, particularly for younger and/or disadvantaged students
d) decreased time spent on discipline matters and improvements in students’ attitudes and efforts (Laitsch et al, 2021)
e) improved management of workplace health and safety issues (particularly in vocational education classes).
3.6 Review playground duty supervision and bus duties
Review the current practices related to playground duty supervision and bus duties to provide teachers with more day-time release to attend to professional tasks during their working hours.
3.7 Developing a healthy work culture
Teachers and education leaders must be encouraged and supported to “disconnect” outside of work hours, as successfully agreed in the last round of enterprise bargaining and currently stated in the certified agreement. To this end, there needs to be an increase of resources and staffing, non-essential tasks must be reduced, and more administration tasks should be delegated to regional offices. This would allow teachers undertake their role during work hours, rather than expecting teachers and education leaders to work unsustainable hours.
RECOMMENDATIONS
18. Reduce administration demands and paperwork “compliance” tasks and increase investment in school-based corporate and administrative resourcing, to more effectively meet the demands of devolved system accountabilities.
19. Negotiate new agreements with the QTU that address the needs of 21st Century educational expectations in moderation, planning and preparation, data collection, capability development and classroom observations, including providing sufficient release time via non-contact time (NCT) and professional release time for instructional collaboration and capability development.
20. Commit to reduce class sizes to manage workload impacts of complex and changing class profiles.
21. Release teachers from current playground and bus duty supervision to free up time for professional tasks.
22. Reduce educator workload by streamlining operational digital platforms and undertake system/process redesign to mitigate a lack of reciprocal interaction between digital platforms, e.g. OneSchool, QLearn, MyHR, MyHR-WHS, SBS-Finance, SBS-Staffing, BEMIR, and additional (duplicate) mandatory data entry into OneSchool.
23. Genuinely undertake to develop a “right to disconnect” culture within state schools.
QTU State Budget Submission 2024-25