Your Teachers Are Going Back to School: Science and Maths Classes to be Taught by STEM Uni Grads

The government's about to change who teaches your science and math classes.

In schools around Australia, teachers who haven't studied science and mathematics for more than a year are somehow teaching those very subjects. That's because there's a shortage of uni students who have an interest in both STEM and education, leading to this Catch-22.

That's why Senator Birmingham, the Minister for Education and Training, has announced plans to introduce new laws that will require teachers of STEM subjects to have studied those subjects at a university level.

"There are too many cases where too many teachers have been teaching outside of their scope," Senator Birmingham told Today.

"While they do a fabulous job and the best they possibly can, students deserve biology specialists teaching biology, physics specialists teaching physics, maths specialists teaching maths, and that's what we want to see occur."

According to the government, one in five general science teachers teaching years 7 to 10 in 2013 had not completed even a year of university study in the field.

"Children will be inspired best by individuals who have a great passion for the subject that they're teaching," Senator Birmingham said.

"This isn't just about ensuring that knowledge and curriculum is imparted, it's about building inspiration in children to stick with maths, to stick with sciences."

But while more STEM students are needed now in certain fields, Senator Birmingham admitted it was a change that wasn't going to happen overnight.

"It's not an overnight thing, which is why we're already investing in better training, online access courses for teachers to up-skill their technology skills and the like that can really help with sciences," he said.

"I hope the states and territories will agree to sign on to a new school reform agreement this year that will include a commitment to developing the type of workforce strategy that allows us over the next couple of years to really then pinpoint where and how we need to train more science teachers."

Header Image: iStock.com/AndreaObzerova