Learning Josh

Well, I’ve applied for it and we have to wait and see if I get it. Every year, the WA education department offers ‘final year teaching scholarships’ to student teachers embarking upon their final year of uni or doing a Dip Ed. This year, they are offering up to $60k in scholarship money, but that’s only if you sign up for a 4 YEAR contract with the department and work in hard to staff or rural areas. I thought 4 years was a bit too long (it’s half a decade), so stuck with 2 years where I would get half that amount but more freedom come 2012.

I must say, the department is offering quite a generous amount this year to primary teaching students compared to lastyear (they only got around $6 000 to $20 000). But I reckon this has to be one of the most generous scholarship offers in the country. It is taxable, so I guess I have to consider that too.

So why do they do it? I think it’s because they want to attact teachers to hard to staff or rural areas in WA. The media has been saying that there is such a big teaching shortage, but what they aren’t saying, is that there isn’t that much of a teaching shortage in the city. It’s in areas such as the pilbara, goldfields and the wheatbelt towns that need them the most.  In my opinion, I think the teaching shortage will be so big that it will be easier for most graduates for find a job in the city.

The trouble with working in mining towns like Port Hedland or Kalgoorlie, is that yes the liklihood of finding a teaching post there is very high, but that’s the problem - It’s too easy. You are actually one of the more lower income earners in the town if you compare yourself to a maintenance worker for BHP who can get $150k/year.

Personally, when I take up that scholarship and if I agree myself to work in a mining town like Newman, I don’t see myself wanting to work on the mines. It’s not really about the money, but I know that if I do work on the mines, I just won’t enjoy it. It’s not me.

So, I think the real issues are – how do we get teaching back to the status where the best of the best were applying for teaching degrees? And most of all, how do we retain them?  It seems like the government is luring student teachers like me with financial incentives to work in the country.

I must say part of the reason why I am choosing the scholarship is because of the money, but it’s not the only reason. It’s because I want to see what it’s like to teach and live in a rural area. It is definately not in my comfort zone, as I know I will have to change parts of my lifestyle to suit the rural lifestyle - Learn how to cook, how to change a tyre, how to look after a car, play some team sport, how to deal with town gossip, etc (I guess this also applies in the city too). But whenever I go out of my comfort zone, I embark into new territory – and that’s what makes life exciting!