Teaching crisis grips NSW with thousands of roles needing to be filled

NSW public schools are battling a massive shortfall in teachers ahead of the return of Term 2 with some schools needing to fill 30 vacancies.

Primary and secondary schools are being forced to conduct classes while down almost 30 teachers each as departmental figures reveal the true extend of the staff shortages gripping the State’s education system.

Western Sydney, regional area and special schools focussed on improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal students are the worst impacted with almost one in eight staff positions unfilled.

And it is not just teacher positions that are unfilled – NSW Department of Education (DET) figures show many schools also have a total of 92 counsellor and psychologist and 1259 administrative and support staff vacancies.

The figures come as new Education Minister Prue Car prepares to talk to the State’s teaching staff in a livestream address to be conducted with departmental bosses on Monday in preparation for the return of students to school.

A breakdown of the figures shows there were 1068 vacant primary school teacher positions as at mid-February 2023, with schools in Queanbeyan, Liverpool and Chullora recording more than 20 unfilled teaching positions each.

Primary schools in the Girraween district had the greatest number of unfilled psychologist and counsellor positions with seven vacancies.

The figures showed there were 1104 vacant secondary teaching positions with schools in Penrith, Liverpool, St Andrews, Mudgee, Wambool-Macquarie and Peel down more than 20 teachers.

The school districts with the greatest number of teacher vacancies were Liverpool and St Andrews with 28 each.

Comparing vacancies with the total number of staff that should be employed at a school, the Barwon district fared the worst with 12 per cent of its teaching jobs vacant – or more than one in 10.

Schools in the Northern Tablelands were next on the list with 11 per cent of teaching jobs unfilled and just under 11 per cent in Deniliquin.

In Sydney, schools in Liverpool were operating while down almost seven per cent of their teachers, Wollondilly almost five per cent and St Andrews more than five per cent.

At Gilgandra High School, NSW Teachers Federation members spoke of the inability to attract teachers despite offers of $20,000 bonuses and $10,000 relocation allowances.

Over at Muswellbrook High School, members wrote about two teachers trying to teach three classes in three separate rooms simultaneously.

NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Damian Shaw

Across “connected communities” schools which are co-constructed with the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG), there were more than 30 staff vacancies among some school districts.

Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said the Minns Government has been advised the union expected wages negotiations to begin this week.

“We face a classroom crisis in NSW,” he said.

“We can’t fix the shortages problem without fixing the wages and workload problem.

“We commend Labor for their commitment to lift wages and reduce the administration workloads of teachers and we want to sit down and begin intensive negotiations this week.”

In a memo to school principals, Acting DET secretary Murat Dizdar invited staff to join a livestream with Ms Car who wanted to share “the shift we are taking to put the focus back on teachers and school-based staff”.