NSW teacher job vacancies triple between 2011 and 2022, data shows

Vacant positions for permanent teachers in NSW public schools have tripled in the past decade, internal documents show. See the figures here.

Internal documents have revealed permanent teacher vacancies in NSW public schools soared to their highest level in more than a decade, with empty positions tripling between 2011 and November 2022.

An internal Department of Education “teacher dashboard” puts the number of vacant positions in 2011 below 1000, but that number had surged to more than 1500 in 2018 and above 2000 in 2022.

By November there were 3311 vacant positions, though the high figure is in part due to the movement of staff between schools at the end of the year and the creation of new assistant principal positions. 52 per cent of the jobs were described as having “recruitment underway”.

In the same month NSW schools had a median of two teaching positions unfilled, while seven schools were between 11 and 15 permanent teachers short.

Murrumbidgee Regional High School had 14 vacancies, of which five had been open for more than six months.

Vacancies for permanent teaching positions in NSW have tripled over the past decade.

Schools in the metropolitan north district accounted for the most vacancies at 17 per cent, but regional and rural areas had the highest vacancy rates, accounting for 55 per cent of open positions overall.

Shadow education minister Prue Car said the government lacked the “ability, ideas and willingness” to fix the problem.

“Providing enough teachers for rural and regional schools is challenging enough yet the NSW Government’s own scheme to try and fix this has only recruited 7 teachers,” she said.

The Department of Education is also struggling to keep the teachers it does hire.

The documents reveal the turnover rate for permanent and temporary staff reached 4 per cent in 2022, up from 2.7 per cent a decade prior.

NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns said the attrition rate was evidence of more than a decade of “mismanagement” under successive Coalition governments.

NSW Labor Deputy leader Prue Car

and leader Chris Minns slammed the figures.

“Teachers in NSW are forced to leave in droves because they are overworked, underpaid, buried in administrative paperwork and working on temporary contracts when they should be focused on improving student outcomes in the classroom,” Mr Minns said.

“We have seen Victoria and Queensland recruit more teachers than NSW over the last decade due to the mismanagement of the Liberals and Nationals.”

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the opposition were being “deliberately misleading”. More than 2,100 roles have been filled to January, and the rate of vacancies has remained stable, she said.

“The Opposition know that this data is old and that many of these vacancies have been filled over the summer holidays, which is when schools do the bulk of their recruitment,” Ms Mitchell said.

“NSW Labor are yet to explain how they would recruit a single new teacher into our public schools.”

The documents also show 6476 teaching positions were filled last year, up 1764 from the previous year.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell hit back at the claims.

A vacant permanent position at a school does not necessarily mean its students are without a teacher.

Both major parties have committed to creating 10,000 permanent teaching positions, but face an uphill battle with schemes including an overseas recruitment drive falling short.

NSW Teachers Federation deputy president Henry Rajendra said the government has failed to address the “real causes of the teacher shortages – unsustainable workloads and uncompetitive salaries”.

“Over 90 per cent of teachers say shortages have led to collapsed or merged classes in the last two years,” he said.

“This crisis will only get worse without immediate action.”