A renowned British educator has urged Australian teachers to take back control of the classrooms amid concerns over Australian students’ worsening discipline and behaviour.
Katharine Birbalsingh CBE, British teacher and education reformer and head teacher of Michaela Community School, called for a clear focus on discipline, improved classroom management skills for Australian teachers, and a more cohesive learning environment.
London’s Michaela Community School, which is well-known for its strict behaviour policy, achieved among the best GCSE results in the U.K among its first cohort of students.
Birbalsingh encouraged Australian teachers to adopt the conservative approach to teaching, managing students’ behaviour and setting expectations instead of what she said are many of the approaches teachers think would help students and will actually harm them in the long term.
“Discipline is a dirty word in most schools—which is a mistake,” says Birbalsingh, who’s dubbed “Britain’s strictest headmistress.”
“And educator’s first duty is to provide students a calm place where they have the best chance to learn.”
Birbalsingh will address the Centre for Independent Studies in a public event on Oct. 23.
Alarming Track Record
Australia has among the least orderly schools in the world, according to the International Student Assessment (PISA) data by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Programme (OECD).The disciplinary climate index shows Australia occupies 70th place out of 77 school systems. In a survey of 15-year-old students, two in five say their classmates don’t listen to what their teacher says, and nearly half say there’s noise and disorder in most or all lessons.
In Australia’s capital, one Canberra school’s teachers have called their work environment a ‘war zone’ over increasingly aggressive and disorderly behaviour from students.
Calwell High School in Canberra was issued with a WorkSafe Act prohibition notice on April 4, after workplace health and safety inspectors found that there were a growing number of Year 7 and 8 student mobs who would physically target and assault other students and teachers.
This came after the school was forced to ban the Year 7 and 8 cohorts after school inspectors found they were allegedly subjecting teachers and administration staff to abuse and sexualised violence and behaviour daily.
One teacher reportedly was left with a dislocated shoulder, several broken teeth, welts to the lower arm, and bruising to the back after allegedly being assaulted while trying to break up a fight between two students.
Graduate Teachers Lack Confidence
Meanwhile, the majority of graduate teachers lack confidence in managing the classroom, according to the OECD’s teaching and learning international survey. In 2016, an Australian study into school experience shows that the least orderly disciplinary climate is in low SES public schools, and the most orderly is in high SES private schools.
Birbalsingh also added that along with building disciplined school culture, teachers, not pupils, should be the authority in the classroom.
“More students can overcome the educational odds, but it will require a fundamental shakeup to the orthodoxy in the education system. Teachers need support to implement what works,” she said.
“Put simply, poor students will remain poor if they don’t get the schooling they need. We’ve shown that disadvantage doesn’t need to be destiny. Schools in Australia – in fact, anywhere in the world – can do the same.”
The comment comes after the New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet called for a “back to basics” approach toward teaching in schools.
While the federal Labor government promised at the election that it would deal with the declining academic result by investing $440 million in building better ventilation, building upgrades, and mental health support. It also said it would offer extra 20,000 university places and a fee-free TAFE. Victoria Kelly-Clark contributed to this report.
