Approaching the five-year mark since the release of the National Review of Teacher Registration report in 2018, we should reflect on the progress made towards implementing a unified registration system for educators across Australia. The pace of change has been disappointingly slow, especially considering the potential benefits for both our education system and child safety.
AITSL was commissioned by the Education Council to lead the review, partly in response to recommendations of the 2017 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The concept of 'one registration' for Australian educators holds immense promise. Not only could it help address teacher shortages by improving workforce mobility, but critically, it could close significant gaps in our child protection systems that continue to leave Australian children vulnerable.
The 2018 AITSL review made clear recommendations to enhance child safety through improved registration processes:
Amending state and territory legislation to facilitate better data sharing between jurisdictions
Developing an automated national sharing platform that draws on jurisdictional databases
Creating a national policy on 'suitability to teach'
These recommendations were not made lightly. They were born of a comprehensive review process that involved extensive stakeholder consultation and expert analysis. So why, five years on, are we still grappling with fragmented systems and inconsistent approaches across states and territories?
The safety and well-being of our children should be paramount. A unified registration system would close loopholes that allow individuals deemed unsuitable in one jurisdiction to gain employment in another.
A streamlined registration process would reduce administrative burdens on schools, educators and regulators alike, allowing more time and resources to be devoted to what matters - quality teaching and learning.
The benefits of 'one registration' extend beyond child safety. It would facilitate greater workforce mobility, helping to get great teachers into areas of need. It would also contribute to the professionalisation of teaching, particularly in the early childhood sector, by ensuring consistent standards across the country.
So, what's holding us back? Implementing such a system requires significant coordination and cooperation between federal, state, and territory governments. It involves legislative change for some jurisdictions, a software solution to connect the registration databases between them, and likely some extra resourcing for the various authorities (https://www.atra.edu.au/) to get it done. All manageable.
As far as we can tell, the states and territories have opted out of a commonwealth-led effort, and are still working on improving ‘mutual recognition’ processes, mostly limited to qualifications. Police checks are still handled differently, not all relevant data is shared, and the employment delays and child safety risks remain.
There are concerns in some quarters about privacy, and increased administrative costs that might be passed on to teachers. These concerns can be addressed with appropriate safeguards and resourcing from government to the registration authorities in each state and territory.
What's needed now is collective will and investment from all levels of government to progress this crucial work. We need to prioritise the safety of our children and the quality of our education system over jurisdictional differences and bureaucratic hurdles.
In November last year Attorney General Mark Dreyfuss held a ‘Ministerial Forum on Child Safety’ announcing a ‘renewed commitment to embedding the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations in legislation, and options to enhance sharing child safety and wellbeing information across sectors and jurisdictions’. Perhaps that commitment should include producing a public report card on the progress of ‘One Registration’...
As we look to the future of education in Australia, let's not forget the recommendations made in 2018. Our children deserve nothing less than a robust, nationally consistent system that ensures their safety and supports high-quality teaching across the country.
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