Almost 50,000 qualified teachers unable to find work in NSW schools

About 2200 new permanent teachers are appointed each year but universities produce 7500 graduates for a job market that will never be able to accommodate them.

The number of teachers without a permanent position has grown by about 3000 in just two years.

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NSW has a growing education scrapheap, with 47,000 qualified teachers unable to secure a permanent job in the state’s schools.

The number of teachers without a permanent position has grown by about 3000 in just two years as universities pump out thousands of new graduates with no hope of them landing fulltime work.

While primary schools are overflowing with applicants, however, the state still faces serious shortages of teachers in key subjects such as high school mathematics.

The oversupply has been exacerbated by the lowest level of teacher resignations in decades, an Education Department report reveals.

About 2200 new permanent teachers are appointed by the state each year but universities produce 7500 graduates for a job market that will never be able to accommodate them.

Graduates and applicants from other sources are pushing the number of qualified teachers without a permanent classroom job towards 50,000 — almost as many as the government’s entire teaching workforce — despite raised standards for entry into teaching degree courses.

Action to improve the quality, and reduce the quantity, of teacher applicants follows revelations that some have entered teacher degree courses with an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank as low as the 60s.

School-leavers aiming for a teaching career will now need a mark of 80 or higher in three HSC subjects, including English — a requirement that should curb the soaring number of applicants.

But while the change will disqualify thousands of would-be teachers who fail to meet the benchmark, educators believe it will take four to five years before benefits are seen in schools.

‘Decreasing supply’

The department’s Teaching Workforce Supply and Demand report warns there is a “decreasing supply of mathematics teachers” across all areas of the state.

“Any increase in retirement rates above current projected levels and to a lesser extent an increase in resignation rates would have a substantial negative impact on the total net supply of mathematics teachers,” the report reveals.

The Education Department employs about 49,000 permanent school teachers across the state with roughly equal numbers of primary and secondary teachers.

Supply projections up to 2022 show potential teacher shortages in mathematics, science with physics, some subjects in technological and applied studies, some specialist teachers and in specific subjects in isolated areas.

Creative arts has more than twice the number of graduates as mathematics.

Other shortages could occur in engineering science, industrial technology and combinations of subjects such as food technology with textiles technology.

There is also a decreasing supply of teachers of languages other than English.

The report says: “The department’s view is that some of the resources currently being allocated to primary teacher education could be better used in secondary areas of need.”

An Education Department spokesman said 320 public school teachers would receive an opportunity to retrain as specialists in mathematics and science over the next four years.

He said 80 scholarships would be offered to help boost the supply of highly trained specialist teachers.