Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T04:53:34.802Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impending Special Education Qualifications Crisis in Victoria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Tony Thomas
Tony Thomas*
Affiliation:
Education Consultant, Melbourne, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Given concern about the decreasing numbers of staff with qualifications in special education in Victorian government specialist schools (schools for students with special educational needs), a survey was distributed to all 81 of these schools to gather information about teacher qualifications and age. A very high response rate of 94% was obtained. The results showed a very wide range of numbers of staff possessing a special education qualification in different schools. It is of concern that in 15 schools (almost 20% of respondent schools) fewer than half the staff had special education qualifications, while in a further 33 schools (43%) between 50% and 79% of the staff had special education qualifications. To add to this concern, there was a large proportion of older teachers in the schools, with 70% of principals and 40% of teachers likely to retire over the next five years. The implications of this for the staffing of the specialist schools are discussed, leading to suggestions for the future.

Type
Brief Report
Information
Australasian Journal of Special Education , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , September 2007 , pp. 139 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © The Australian Association of Special Education 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ferrari, J. (2006, July 20). Teachers with no training. The Australian, p. 1.Google Scholar
Lonsdale, M., & Ingvarson, L. (2003). Policy briefs issue 5: Initiatives to address teacher shortage. Camberwell, Victoria: ACER.Google Scholar
McCormick, J. (2005). Pennywise and pound foolish: Special education licensing. Teaching Exceptional Children, 37, 7.Google Scholar
Principals’ Association of Specialist Schools. (2000). Principals’ Association of Specialist Schools’ submission to the PENG Working Party. Melbourne: Author.Google Scholar
Van Kraayenoord, C. (2001). Wanted—teachers. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 48, 125–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Victorian Department of Education, Employment and Training. (2000). Public education: The next generation discussion paper. Melbourne: Author.Google Scholar
Victorian Institute of Teaching. (2005). Teacher education: Special education guidelines. Retrieved June 2007 from http://www.vit.vic.edu.au/content.asp?Document_ID=522.Google Scholar