Western Sydney school teachers to walk off the job over ‘chronic shortages’

Holroyd High School teachers will walk off the job this afternoon as part of rolling action across the state as frustration reaches fever pitch over chronic teacher shortages.

Holroyd High School teachers will walk off the job this afternoon as part of rolling action across the state as frustration reaches fever pitch over chronic teacher shortages.

There’s 12 vacancies at the western Sydney school according to the NSW Teachers Federation, leaving staff overburdened and forced to merge classes or run them on minimal supervision.

Specialist learning programs are being impacted at the school, union members claim, with support to students being compromised as a result.

NSWTF president Angelo Gavrielatos will address Holroyd staff at the rally outside the school from 1.30pm.

“Teacher shortages mean children miss out and teachers burn out,” he told the Telegraph.

“The teacher shortage crisis at schools across the state and in western Sydney is impacting the learning, wellbeing and attendance levels of students and burning out their teachers.

“The Perrottet government is failing in its most basic responsibility in education which is to ensure that every child is taught by a qualified teacher in every lesson, every day.

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

Holroyd High School teachers will walk off the job today over ongoing staff shortages.

It follows a spate of industrial action by teachers federation members at schools across the state in recent weeks.

On Friday morning, Randwick Boys High teachers held a demonstration outside the school to draw attention to ongoing shortages and burgeoning workloads.

On Wednesday, teachers at both Tumut and Gilgandra high schools walked off the job over unfilled vacancies at their respective schools.

There’s currently four vacancies at Tumut, and teachers claim that 96 senior classes have gone uncovered so far this term due to staff shortages. At Gilgandra, 10 of the school’s 21 teaching positions are vacant or being backfilled.

Teachers at Randwick Boys High School held a demonstration on Friday to highlight severe staff shortages. Picture: Supplied

On March 2, teachers from Merriwa Central School in the Upper Hunter rallied to highlight ongoing shortages - claiming they remained six teachers short of the school’s full complement of 30.

Last month, Muswellbrook High union members held a snap rally outside the school, over the government’s failure to fill their eight vacancies. Teachers there regularly instruct classes of up to 50 students and every fortnight, they claim, more than 200 lessons are taught by teachers outside their area of qualification and expertise.

Mr Gavrielatos said the NSW government’s Teacher Supply Strategy had been a “hopeless failure” with just three teachers recruited from overseas in a year.

“It is only by addressing the real causes of the teacher shortages – unsustainable workloads and uncompetitive salaries – that we can recruit and retain the teachers we need,” he said.

“This crisis will only get worse without immediate action. We have two thirds of teachers saying they are burnt out and 60 per cent looking to leave in the next five years.”

Mr Gavrielatos said the decision by the Perrottet Government to cap pay increases at 2.53 per cent a year when inflation was 7.8 per cent and rising, defied their own research which showed that uncompetitive salaries were a major reason why less people were studying to become teachers.

Ms Mitchell told the Saturday Telegraph last week that the teachers’ union was “peddling a calculated scaremongering campaign”. On Friday she said the education department was working hard to fill vacancies at Holroyd High.

“The teachers union are now taking political action against the Liberal and Nationals for their NSW Labor allies on the eve of an election,” she said.

“The fact is, half of our public schools have no vacancies and a quarter have only one. 

“Holroyd High School is receiving direct support from our priority recruitment team, with $20,000 recruitment bonuses made available for roles at the school that have had two unsuccessful attempts to fill them.”