Workforce profiling indicates that Tasmanian Government schools will have an adequate supply of available teachers in all curriculum areas, including maths and science over the coming years, Deputy Secretary, Early Years and Schools, Liz Banks, said today.

“The Department will continue to monitor the supply and demand for teachers in all Tasmanian government schools to ensure we can continue to suitably staff our schools with highly skilled and qualified teachers in all subject areas.

“The Department is already taking a pro-active approach to increasing the supply of science and maths teachers in Tasmania.

“Partnerships in Teaching Excellence is a partnership between the Department and the University of Tasmania. It provides a collaborative and innovative approach to support high quality teachers and the priority this year has been to target more science graduates.

“The program is for second year Bachelor of Teaching pre-service teachers, who are supported by mentor teachers in the Department. Incentives include permanency, a $6000 scholarship allowance, and an $8000 contribution towards the Master of Teaching of their HECS fees.

“Since 2009, the program has selected 68 second year Bachelor of Teaching/Master of Teaching pre-service teachers for scholarships. Of these, eight have had strong maths/science backgrounds.

“To provide additional incentives to attract maths/science teachers, a two year scholarship has been advertised for final year maths and science graduates (including engineering students).

“This scholarship provides support within the Partnerships in Teaching Excellence Structure for up to four students to enrol in the two year master of teaching course.

 “The Teacher Learning Centre at Rokeby is used by student teachers, post-graduate students and as a training venue for Department of Education (DOE) teachers and other staff and is a key part of a partnership between the State Government and the University of Tasmania.

“In addition, DOE centrally co-ordinates professional learning in collaboration with the University of Tasmania and has resulted in the University offering a graduate certificate in Science Education. This is designed to provide a structured professional development program specifically for the needs of science teachers,” Ms Banks said.