AEU Victoria is taking a break, and we will be closing our offices over the holidays. Our contact form will not be monitored at this time, so any messages will receive a response after Monday 10 January, 2022.
Our holiday hours are:
We wish all best to our members and friends after another big year.
15 December 2021
Public school principals and teachers continue to see NAPLAN as ineffective and outdated, according to a new survey conducted by the Australian Education Union.
AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said that a vast majority of principals and teachers are concerned about the impact NAPLAN has on teacher workloads and students’ stress and anxiety levels, without delivering any real results.
“NAPLAN is not fit for purpose in our schools,” Ms Haythorpe said.
5 December 2021
TAFE students and teachers are set to benefit from Federal Labor’s new skills policy announced today.
Australian Education Union Federal president Correna Haythorpe welcomed the ALP’s promise of 465,000 free TAFE places, $50 million for new facilities and equipment and a guarantee of 70 per cent of total government funding for TAFE.
“These new commitments announced today by Anthony Albanese will create life-changing opportunities for future TAFE students,” Ms Haythorpe said.
Public school staff will ban Victorian State Labor MPs from visiting campuses as part of three additional industrial bans by ES, teachers, and principals commencing today.
The ongoing industrial action includes new bans on NAPLAN Online School Readiness Testing and education support staff undertaking duties during their unpaid lunch break.
The release today of the Shaping Our Future; A ten-year strategy to ensure a sustainable, high-quality children’s education and care workforce 2022–2031 highlights the critical need for greater investment in TAFE.
“As Shaping Our Future states, declining enrolments in approved educator qualifications along with increasing demand for qualified early childhood staff have created urgent workforce challenges for the early childhood sector,” Australian Education Union Federal President Correna Haythorpe said.
Teachers, principals and education support staff working in Victorian government schools have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action to achieve a new schools agreement.
Australian Education Union Victorian Branch president Meredith Peace said the results of the ballot send a clear message to the Andrews Labor government.
“Premier Daniel Andrews and Education Minister James Merlino have not done enough to address the spiralling and unsustainable workloads of teachers, principals and education support staff in public schools.”
Children are at risk of being left behind, the Australian Education Union warned, as new OECD data shows Australia’s poor performance on early learning.
AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said the findings in the OECD’s Education at a Glance 2021 report pointed to the urgent need for reform in the early years.
“We spend half the OECD average of 0.6 per cent of GDP on pre-primary education for three to five-year-olds, equal third lowest of OECD nations” Ms Haythorpe said.
The Australian Education Union has rejected a proposed outcomes-based Australian Migrant English Program funding model, in a submission to the Department of Home Affairs.
“The proposed model would fail migrants, fail providers, fail education, and fail educators,” Australian Education Union Federal President Correna Haythorpe said.
“Our members reject any attempt to undermine quality in the AMEP.”
The AEU has serious concerns about the outcomes-based payment model as outlined in the discussion paper.
Political leaders should avoid drawing simplistic conclusions from the NAPLAN results released today, according to the Australian Education Union.
“NAPLAN is a deeply flawed test, and its deficiencies need to be considered in any reading of the 2021 results,” Australian Education Union Federal President Correna Haythorpe said.
“The test results must not be used by politicians to avoid their responsibility to ensure that public schools are funded properly, and that educational disadvantage is addressed with additional resources.
Critical industries like childcare, ICT, carpentry and plumbing are at risk of significant workforce shortages, which would undermine the strength of Australia’s COVID-19 economic recovery according to the Australian Education Union.
Investment in TAFE would help ensure a sustainable supply of highly trained workers and support people to gain the skills they require to get good jobs, Australian Education Union Deputy Federal President Meredith Peace said.