Victorian public school teachers want a 4-day week trial. What could this mean for schools?
https://theconversation.com/victorian-public-school-teachers-want-a-4-day-week-trial-what-could-this-mean-for-schools-276281
Victorian public school teachers want a 4-day week trial. What could this mean for schools?
https://theconversation.com/victorian-public-school-teachers-want-a-4-day-week-trial-what-could-this-mean-for-schools-276281
44 Comments
[deleted]
And work week please!
I guess it means a free day for teachers to plan and help them manage their workload a lot easier, could be wrong
Is it teacher bashing time again already? By Job it’s been a while! I’ve been waiting for this since *checks notes* the last time they asked for a pay rise. Right, here goes nothing: *teachers get too many holidays!*
There’s no reason why, in 2026, we can’t have a genuine conversation about reducing everyone’s work hours to four days a week. Granted there will always be some form of exception, but by and large we should all be working towards a four day work week.
Edit: should have been assumed but I’m talking about a four day work week without the reduction in pay.
And I know this thread is about school teachers. I just don’t understand why we can’t, by and large, talk about this as a general rule in society. Why separate any working industry that can sustain itself on a four-day work week?
This would be great news it would force companies to match it
Can’t let the bottom ring plebs have nice things.
Otherwise the top end of town will have to actually make some difficult decisions! Wouldn’t that be a sight
The average Australian teacher is exceeding 50 hours a week of work.
What they want is a return to a normal working week. A day off would take them down to 40 hours.
The only change required would be enlarging the work force by about 20%. Half of teaching staff would then work Monday through Thursday and the other half Tuesday through Friday.
There are a couple of hurdles here. One is that currently there just aren’t enough teachers to make this viable. There’s a shortage due to workload and pay; is a change like this enough to draw people who’ve quit back? Maybe, maybe not. The second is that you’d need to build more staffrooms, and schools already don’t have the infrastructure they need.
Great idea for schools but only if parents can get the extra day a week off. School schedules are built around work schedules, not the other way around – it’s why school starts early despite every study ever showing that teenagers perform better with a later start.
Will it lead to better outcomes for students?
The answer to that should be the focus of the trial.
Offer low cost oshc option or more general activities as substitute for primary school and I m all in for it.
Assuming same curriculum can be delivered under compressed hours.
[deleted]
As soon as you mention a 4 day work week you get threatened with obsolescence by cheap offshored labour, cheap migrant labour or AI. It’s all just so exhausting.
if half teachers do mon-thurs, then other half tues-friday and alternate why not ? You could do this with all work really.
Get the teacher to negotiate with the CEOs
Sure, but just wait until the NAPLAN results have turned around.
Kids are finishing school functionally illiterate.
My wife was working in a school the other day and a support worker, in their early 20s, admitted they could not spell minute.
I don’t think this is the time to reduce hours i’m sorry.
I had a 4 day week at my public state high school – we had Wednesday’s off to study. The alternate days we used to do longer hours. (Not much, like an hour – hour and a half extra)
It was really good, particularly in year 11 and 12 because it took the pressure off having to study every night. Also it gave the teachers an extra day to catch up on their paperwork etc
I think it’s a great idea and I’m surprised it hasn’t been implemented sooner
In highschool Wednesday was a half day for us if we didn’t play interschool sport. That was 20 years ago, I don’t see why giving teachers one less day should be a problem
Everyone in every industry should work a 4 day week.
I moved to a 4 day week two years ago and it was the best decision I’ve ever made.
This is **not** a four day week. It’s timetabling all of a teacher’s face to face time over 4 days so their admin and planning can be done from home on the fifth.
Advantages are one day working from home. Disadvantage is reduced opportunities for teacher collaboration and increased difficulty timetabling it.
Does that mean a 4-day school week, or an increase in the number of teachers to make up the hours for a 5-day school week?
‘Cos option 1 isn’t going to work – you’d have to account for childcare for those parents who work 5 days a week.
Option 2 is simple – increase funding for teachers.
It will mean nothing, because this will never, ever, ever, ever happen.
Look, I’m a huge advocate of the 4DWW, and I know teachers work too much already, but teachers have to be last I’m sorry. Schools are basically daycare while parents are working, we can’t have schools reducing to 4 days per week before parents of students are also reduced.
I understand the pressing need to reduce teacher labour pretty much as soon as possible, and that’s why I want to see 4DWW rolled out as soon as we can (now, preferably), largely so teachers can get it sooner.
Also to address the article, this isn’t a real 4 day work week, so while the headline doesn’t say that it is, it is misleading by making people think of the 4DWW. But it’s still relevant to highlight that teachers can’t just not have contact time with students on one day until we can assure child neglect laws wouldn’t kick in for average parents in poverty not willing to send their children to an expensive daycare.
Nothing here is proposing a 4-day work week. Did anybody actually read the article?
Shame on people for not reading beyond the headline, but shame on the article for blatantly lying in the headline.
Skip the trial. Just go ahead and do it already!
Im in the know here, that wasn’t on the demands list from the AEU.
5 working days and 2 days of rest is honestly so barbaric when you think about it
It’s not a four day week proposal.
Clickbait.
I would like to know the opinion of other trades
/professionals on 9-5 hour schedules.
Do you arrive at work 1hr before starting time and leave 1hr after finishing time? Every day.
I understand working late on occasions for deadlines ect … just curious if this is standard across industries
The hours they keep and the large amount of days off they have and now they want a 4 day week, they are officially taking the piss now
I work for an employer who has said the only reason they won’t entertain it is because it would be unfair to part timers.
What?
I support this. However, first we need higher pay, higher standards, less contracting, no phones, and return computers to the computer lab. 5 days of shit schooling and 4 will do very little difference.
I would’ve been a much happier child and much more enthusiastic about school of the week was only four days. Making it feel like a chore is this exact thing that causes children to be resentful towards learning
Doesn’t really work unless then normal work week for everyone else shifts to 4 days as well, who is going to look after the kids if they are only in school 4 days a week and the parents still work 5
Can my mine site get a 4 day work week without reduced pay too?
Everywhere should have this. Heck I’ll work the next two hours a day if they want
Why even have school at all? Everything can be studied at home online, with no real use for teachers other than to mark assessments, even that is not necessary anymore as AI is more than capable to mark assignments.
Wow a 4 day week means 10 hour a day not 8. So same number of paid working hours. You don’t seriously think teachers would suddenly be 20% more effective. And students will learn 20% better?
But schools are just glorified child storage centres! Where do we leave our kids on Friday?
Real question is do they want Mondays or Fridays off.
Childcare workers would be flooded with work.
Sounds like a great idea to me. Kids should get to play more and adults need a 4 day work week too.
But the parents will have to have the kids an extra day.
Fuck a trial – just do it. Make it work. If 5 works make 4 works. Government loses a little. Tax the rich more. Move forward.
This pussy footing around shit. Can we just do it already.