Hundreds of student teachers granted exemptions by SA Teachers Registration Board to fill classroom gaps
SA faces a classroom crisis with teachers suspended for serious misconduct while hundreds of unqualified students are allowed to fill teaching roles amid staff shortages.
Teachers who came to school drunk, had inappropriate contact with students or made threats that caused a campus lockdown are among those to face consequences from the education watchdog.
Latest figures show three South Australian teachers were suspended last financial year after being charged with offences.
Another seven were suspended for posing an “unacceptable risk to children”, according to the 2024-25 Teachers Registration Board (TRB) annual report.
Allegations against the suspended teachers included serious offences against another adult, inappropriate relationships with students and attending school while under the influence of alcohol.
The report does not name the teachers, or the schools where they worked.
In one case, a teacher was found guilty of unprofessional conduct after “engaging in aggressive and threatening behaviour towards a school principal, resulting in a school lockdown and police attendance”.
They received a reprimand.
Three other teachers who were reapplying for registration were found to have, respectively:
ASSAULTED a taxi driver.
HAD inappropriate communication with a student and;
FAILED to maintain appropriate boundaries with students and engaged in inappropriate physical contact.
The TRB is responsible for ensuring the suitability of educators working at public or private schools.
It received 267 notifications raising red flags last financial year relating to incompetence, unprofessional conduct, potential criminal offences or issues that “seriously impaired” their capacity to teach.
The board automatically cancelled the registration of 12 educators, sent 24 warning letters and negotiated conditions on 9 teachers without needing to hold an inquiry.
Its annual report also reveals that student teachers are increasingly being called on to lead classes, or fill in as relief teachers, before they are fully qualified amid an ongoing educator shortage.
The TRB granted 715 special authority to teach (SAT) exemptions in the past year, including for 298 relief teacher roles.
These allow second, third or fourth year university students to work in a public or private school as if they were already a registered teacher.
The education minister says these students are gaining “real experience” while being paid and the majority go on to full-time teaching roles.
However, the education union has previously warned of higher rates of “burnout” and resignations among educators on exemptions.
The number of exemptions allowing university students to work in public and private schools before they have finished their degrees has been rising steadily since the Covid-19 pandemic prompted many experienced teachers to retire early or switch careers.
In 2019 the TRB approved just 69 exemptions.
The number had risen to 512 in 2023-24, including for 123 relief teacher positions.
Opposition education spokeswoman Heidi Girolamo said the exemptions were “meant to be temporary, not a long-term solution”.
“The government risks exhausting and exploiting new and inexperienced teachers, pushing them out of a profession that cannot afford to lose any more teachers.”
Education Minister Blair Boyer said the state government had done “a huge amount of work” to support early career teachers.
“Too many teachers tell me that they start the job unprepared for the classroom,” he said.
“A special authority to teach (exemption) introduces a new way of giving teachers real experience while, at the same time, earning while they learn.”
Mr Boyer said the government had also given more current teachers permanent employment.
The TRB annual report for 2024-25 also shows:
THERE are now about 38,000 teachers registered to work in South Australia.
THE workforce has grown from about 36,500 as of June 2024.
MORE than 400 teachers from interstate, or New Zealand, were approved to teach in SA last financial year, up from 309 the previous year.
MORE than 1,150 teachers transitioned from provisional to full registration, up from 1,413 the year before.
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Originally published as Hundreds of student teachers granted exemptions by SA Teachers Registration Board to fill classroom gaps
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