National

Voters back union push to get more help for teachers

Jun 4, 2026

Students writing in a classroom at a western Sydney primary school — A union survey suggests over 80 per cent don't of teachers have enough time to plan lessons. -AAP Image

Teachers demanding more hours to plan for the classroom lessons have been backed by Australian voters across the political spectrum.

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Poll results released on Thursday found Labor, coalition and Greens voters unanimously support the NSW Teachers Federation's latest campaign call to ease the burden on educators.

"Teachers in NSW have had the same preparation time for decades yet in that time, classrooms have been transformed," federation president Henry Rajendra said.

"There are far more students with disability, more complex needs, more cultural and linguistic diversity, and a curriculum that keeps changing".

Primary school teachers in NSW receive two hours a week to plan lessons, organise compliance for students with extra needs and collaborate with colleagues.

The teacher's union is calling for this time to be doubled.

The union's survey of 18,000 members showed 85 per cent do not have enough time to plan lessons for the classroom.

But Redbridge Group's latest polling of 2025 NSW voters found they "back teacher investment above all else ... it is a bipartisan view across Labor, coalition and Greens voters".

It identified 42 per cent of respondents believed supporting teachers was the single most effective way to improve public education and greater than all other options to improve education.

"Voters saw a direct connection there, RedBridge Group's research director Simon Welsh said.

"If we can help teachers to be better at what they do, this benefits every kid in the classroom," he said.

Cass Tonkin, a NSW primary school teacher since 2008, said the two-hour schedule for lesson planning is not suitable for modern classrooms.

"We have to do what is right by the law and the Disability Discrimination Act ... which didn't have a huge impact when I first started my career," she told AAP.

"Now, we spend a lot of time doing that paperwork."

Ms Tonkin also serves as a representative for the teacher's union which funded a independent review into NSW public school teachers in 2021.

It found the hours primary teachers were provided to plan for lessons had not changed since the 1980s; secondary teachers have had no increase since the 1950s.

Since the inquiry, there are 220,000 students with a disability in NSW public schools, an increase of 75 per cent.