Teach For Australia, addressing educational inequity

Despite Australia’s prosperity, it’s a jarring reality that our education system is not equally and consistently funded in line with that prosperity. Where a child goes to school can radically impact the education they receive and limit the opportunities available to them beyond the school gate.

Teach For Australia is a registered charity working to address this educational inequity, with a vision that education should give all children, regardless of background or where they live, greater choice for their future.

Recognising quality teaching and leadership as key levers for improving student outcomes, Teach For Australia works towards this vision by recruiting and training high-achieving people to be passionate teachers and leaders for schools around Australia, where needs are highest.

Teach For Australia’s mission is to build a community of teachers and leaders who share the commitment to educational equity for children, and over 12 years the organisation has recruited and trained more than 1100 teachers who have impacted the lives of more than 370,000 students. 

Under Teach For Australia’s flagship Leadership Development Program, talented graduates from disciplines other than education and high-achieving career changers make the switch to teaching. They receive support and coaching on a two-year employment-study pathway, working in schools while earning their Master of Teaching.

Teach For Australia partners exclusively with schools in low socioeconomic communities, where workforce shortages can be acute and it's challenging to secure the subject specialists needed to give students the same educational opportunities as peers in more advantaged communities. People with subject expertise and industry experience, as well as passion to work for equity, are matched with schools where they have impact for their students from day one.

Teach For Australia’s founder and CEO is Melodie Potts Rosevear OAM, who felt first-hand the transformational power that great teachers can have on shaping a child’s future.

“Teach For Australia is reimagining the future where educational equity flourishes and quality education is accessible to all our children and young people, no matter where they live. We want a future where circumstance plays no role in limiting access to education and opportunity,” Melodie said.

Teach For Australia now works with more than 220 schools in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory and we are advancing plans to grow our impact, in service of students everywhere, because there is still work to do.

We know systems are complex and a shift at scale is never linear but we believe the collective power of a coalition of supporters - from across all areas of our community - can drive the change our children need.”

For more information about Teach For Australia visit www.teachforaustralia.org

This organisation is supported by trusts managed by Equity Trustees.