This year’s PMSA Teacher Education Scholarship winners are a positive sign for the future of teaching with three of the four winners male students.
Male teachers are in steady decline in Australia. According to recent studies, only about 15 per cent of primary classroom teachers are male while in 1980 about 30 per cent were male.
This year’s scholarship winners were Brisbane Boys’ College (BBC) 2019 Year 12 graduates Jack Ryan and Nicholas Fowles, 2018 BBC graduate Thomas Yarrow and 2019 Clayfield College graduate Lily Andrews.
Jack Ryan and Nicholas Fowles will both undertake dual degrees in arts and secondary education at the University of Queensland.
Clayfield College scholarship recipient Lily Andrews will study early childhood teaching at Australian Catholic University while current University of Queensland Bachelor of Music student Thomas Yarrow will add a Bachelor of Teaching to his studies for 2020. Both Lily and Thomas have a passion for music and look forward to inspiring children to experience what music has to offer.
“By combining my love of music with education, I will be able to achieve my goal of providing students with the wonderful opportunities I received at BBC,” scholarship winner Thomas Yarrow said.
“The PMSA Teacher Education Scholarship will help me to achieve this goal by providing financial support and a close link to the Christian ethos of schools such as Brisbane Boys’ College,” he said.
2019 Year 12 graduate and Clayfield College Old Collegian Lily Andrews will begin studying her first choice of a Bachelor Early Childhood and Primary Education at the Australian Catholic University. Lily was Music Captain and hopes to become a specialist primary music teacher. “Music education has various social and cognitive benefits for children of all ages,” said Lily Andrews.
“In the future, I plan to reside in a rural or remote area and give students outside of the big city that don’t have a music program an opportunity to experience what learning music has to offer.”
PMSA Chief Executive Officer Sharon Callister said this year’s recipients are a positive sign for the future and the PMSA are proud of their commitment to a gender-inclusive workforce.
“We’re very proud of these scholarships and the opportunities they give to all emerging and future teachers.”
The scholarships aim to foster a respect for the importance of teaching as a profession, foster Christian faith and values in schools and encourage future teachers who hold Christian beliefs and values, and assist aspiring teachers of Christian conviction to complete an approved teacher education program to enable them to make a difference in the schools they serve.
Each of the four scholarship winners will receive $2000 per year for up to four years as they undertake their teaching degrees.