Canberra, 14 August 2020: Following representations from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) to the Minister for Education, we have received welcome confirmation from his office that ‘teacher librarianship units of study will be funded in line with teacher education units of study’ if the proposed Job-ready Graduates Package is passed through Parliament.
As part of cluster 2 (teaching), Teacher Librarian and Librarian students choosing units from teacher librarianship electives would pay significantly less than in 2020 should the legislation go through. As Charles Sturt University (CSU) is the only library school in Australia providing ongoing teacher librarianship courses, this benefit would be limited to CSU students.
However, ALIA continues to advocate for all library and information science units of study to be reassigned from Cluster 1 to Cluster 2, alongside IT and education, given our close alignment with these fields, with support from the Council of Australian University Librarians and National and State Libraries Australia.
ALIA CEO Sue McKerracher said, ‘We are looking at the difference between $14,500 as a student contribution in the current proposal and $3,700 if librarianship is positioned alongside teaching. We are pleased that teacher librarianship has been correctly positioned and we continue to press our case for library and information management to be moved too.’
ALIA has made a submission in this vein to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment consultation for the draft legislation to implement the new fee package.