Just two STEM teachers hired as part of $14m recruitment scheme

Just two teachers have been hired as part of NSW’s multimillion dollar overseas teacher recruitment scheme, as the government admits visa and eligibility issues are hampering efforts.

Just two teachers have been hired as part of the multimillion-dollar international and interstate recruitment program established by the NSW government to plug critical staff shortages.

A science teacher and a technology teacher recruited as part of the Recruitment Beyond NSW program will commence in schools in Term 4 – with one of those being an Australian teacher returning from overseas.

However, the government has vigorously defended program which it claims has attracted more than 10,000 expressions of interest – 300 of those short-listed.

Announced in October last year as part of a broader Teacher Supply Strategy, the government declared the $14 million Recruitment Beyond NSW scheme would lure desperately-needed science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to NSW from interstate and overseas with 560 to be classrooms by 2024.

While Education Minister Sarah Mitchell in March this year described the response to the program as having been “huge”, progress in getting teachers actually in the classroom has been slow.

Critical STEM teacher shortages has forced the NSW government to look overseas.

In answers to Labor questions on notice, the NSW government acknowledged the recruitment processes could “range between four to 12 months or more” following receipt of applications due eligibility and visa issues.

“The first two teachers recruited are due to commence in schools in Term 4, 2022: one science teacher and one technology teacher,” the response to Labor stated.

Just two STEM teachers were recruited as part of government program.

To try to speed up the process, Ms Mitchell has written to the Commonwealth Government, suggesting making teaching a pathway for fast-tracked citizenship.

Talks are also underway with Service NSW after the scheme hit a local bureaucratic snag with the mandatory Working With Children Checks taking applicants up to eight weeks.

As revealed last week, the delays have forced the NSW government to offer awaiting international teaching applicants a daily allowance of $430.

Taking aim at state opposition leader Chris Minns, Ms Mitchell said any suggestion that the only STEM teachers that had been recruited to NSW were from the Recruitment Beyond NSW was “lazy” and wrong with 688 new recruits hired outside of the program.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has asked the Federal government to fast-track visa applications for teachers Picture: NCA NewsWire

“Recruitment Beyond NSW was always going to take time to bring teachers into our system, given visa processing and our strict requirements to assess the quality of incoming teachers,” Ms Mitchell said.

NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said better wages and workloads will attract and retain teachers.

NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said teacher shortage meant

one in four secondary teachers were being required to teach subjects they didn’t study at university.

“Their so-called plan won’t deliver anything like the thousands of additional teachers we need or help retain the ones we have in the classroom,” he said.

“We can’t fix the teacher shortage problem without fixing the wages and workload problem.”

NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns branded the recruitment program had been a failure.

“You can’t put a band-aid on a broken arm, but that’s exactly what Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has tried to do with this botched teacher supply strategy,” he said.

“It is no surprise that the Perrottet Government hasn’t reported on its progress – it hasn’t made any.”