Former Margaret River teacher Mark Cummins says mental health workload support is key to keeping teachers

A former teacher who left the profession citing a lack of State Government support for public schools says the Education Minister must tackle the growing workload from student mental health and wellbeing if he wanted to retain the many teachers leaving for good.

Margaret River-based former teacher Mark Cummins said the welfare of students and the lack of extra resources for teachers facing an increased duty of care on mental health grounds was a significant part of teachers’ daily struggles.

Central to his concerns was more than $10 million in recurrent funding given to Catholic Education WA after it mandated protocols known as the School Response and Planning Guidelines for Students with Suicidal Behaviour and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, but public schools had not received equivalent funding and not made the same commitment to those guidelines.

“CEWA mandated suicidal behaviour guidelines on the back of special funding from the Cook Government, but unfortunately the same guidelines are not mandated in public schools due to the associated costs,” Mr Cummins told the Times.

“It’s a sad day when our Government places Catholic and independent schools above its own public school sector, its staff and students.”

The former teacher said it was another example of Labor’s “failure to adequately care” for public school sector students and teachers.

“Teachers must be protected from burn-out, and rewarded to a degree that reflects their importance to our children and their futures,” he said.

Although Mr Cummins’ push for a Parliamentary inquiry, supported by educator Maggie Dent, was rejected by the State Government, he has continued his advocacy.

At last Tuesday’s teacher strike, workers cited frustration that student welfare duties had increased since the pandemic while significant numbers of teachers were working outside their areas of expertise.

A spokesperson for Education Minister Tony Buti did not address the workload on teachers, but said schools had mandated separate student health and incident management policies that directed staff to the guidelines central to Mr Cummins’ concerns.

“The department has made clear its expectation that public school principals will use the guidelines in their decision-making regarding suicide risk and response in school settings,” they said.

“Implementation of the guidelines is supported through training. Schools use the guidelines as a tool to guide staff to make the best decisions according to the circumstances of an individual student.

“This recognises that the circumstances surrounding suicide are often complex and very dynamic, with many factors needing to be considered.”

The spokesperson noted investment in school psychologists was at the highest level in the department’s history.