NSW’s staff shortage program delivers just 27 new teachers

An ambitious program to recruit 3,700 extra teachers in NSW over ten years has delivered just 27 extra educators into classrooms in the ten months since it was announced.

Multiple programs to fix our state’s teacher shortage have either stalled or are failing to deliver any meaningful increase to the education workforce.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that an ambitious plan to bring 3,700 extra teachers into the public school system has delivered fewer than 30 teachers into classrooms so far.

Only 161 teachers have been recruited as part of the NSW Government’s “Teacher Supply Strategy” in the ten months since the $125 million program was announced.

Of those, only 27 are actually in the classroom.

The details were revealed in a budget estimates hearing which also uncovered that a plan to lure teachers from interstate or overseas is moving at a snail’s pace.

Programs to fix NSW’s teachers shortages have seen just over two dozen teachers make it into in the classroom.

One aspect of the Teacher Supply Strategy which was supposed to bring in much-needed STEM teachers from interstate and overseas has provided zero teachers to date.

“The Recruitment Beyond NSW program … has zero teachers in schools currently and 460 teachers to deliver from 2023-24,” Education Department Acting Chief People Officer Christopher Lamb told budget estimates.

Despite programs to recruit teachers from interstate and overseas, zero have been successfuly recruited.

Under the program, 21 teachers have received offers and could start work in 2023.

In a third education fail, a $400,000 program announced in 2020 to encourage mid-career workers to move into teaching appears to be at a standstill, with Education bureaucrats now looking at “what the next stages may be”.

Education Department Secretary Georgina Harrison said bureaucrats undertook “some work” on the contract and the next steps are “currently under consideration”.

Labor Leader Chris Minns seized on the admissions to accuse the government of doing “too little, too late” to fix the teacher shortage after “ignoring” the problem for 12 years.

NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns blasted the recruitment fail. Picture: Richard Dobson

“The results are in - the Perrottet government’s teacher recruitment program gets an F for Fail,” he said.

“We know that severe teacher shortages are forcing schools to combine or merge classes and this is having a detrimental impact on student’s learning outcomes”

As of June 2022, there were 1,657 teacher vacancies across NSW public schools.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell defended the Teacher Supply Strategy by saying that it was a “long-term, 10-year” plan that is “track to deliver 3,700 teachers with the right subject qualifications in the right locations across the state across its lifespan”.

Ms Mitchell said programs are meeting their targets. Picture: Gaye Gerard / NCA Newswire

She said the Recruitment Beyond NSW program has “received more than 10,000 expressions of interest with 300 shortlisted”.

“Visa processing is a significant barrier to these teachers starting in the system,” she said.

The government is in the final phases of securing a program with Teach for Australia, this will be announced shortly, The Telegraph was told.