Which NSW school communities are seeing the highest number of teacher resignations, retirement

Almost 1000 teachers have quit or retired in the last financial year, as new data reveals the NSW school communities with the highest number of vacancies. See where your school ranks.

Hundreds of teachers have resigned or retired across NSW in the last year.

Teachers in the state’s west are leaving the classroom in droves, with new data uncovering the school communities haemorrhaging educators.

Data released to NewsLocal revealed more than 55 permanent teaching staff left the public school education system in regional NSW last year, increasing the number of vacancies.

The Dubbo electorate has seen a rise in teacher vacancies from 49 from June 20, 2022, to 56.2 to June 14, 2023.

From the steady incline of staff leaving, 42 have resigned from the profession, 12 retired and one transferred outside of the department.

According to the Department of Education during 2022, 980 permanent teaching staff from regional NSW left the department, with 363 retiring, 576 resigning and 41 for other reasons such as transfers or medical reasons.

Meanwhile, data revealed the Tamworth Regional local government area saw the highest number of full-time equivalent teacher vacancies with 39.2 reported in the last financial year – from 27 schools.

NSW Teachers Federation deputy president Henry Rajendra said every child deserves to be taught by a quality teacher.

“Under the Coalition, unsustainable workloads and uncompetitive salaries led to acute teacher shortages across NSW,” Mr Rajendra said. “Teacher shortages mean children miss out and teachers burn out.

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

“We look forward to negotiating more competitive salaries with the new government and reducing workloads.”

Federation of Parents and Citizens Association of NSW representative, Patrick Doumani, said having fewer teachers makes student learning “more of a challenge”.

“This makes classroom control more difficult, and it is also more difficult for teachers to give individual students the attention they may need,” Mr Doumani said.

More than 55 permanent teaching staff left the public school education system in a regional area last year, increasing the number of vacancies.

“Numerous parents have said they see the disruption caused by staff shortages as a factor behind behavioural problems in classrooms.

“We have also heard from some parents of children with autism that consistency is important for their children and that the inconsistency in teachers has disrupted their children’s learning.”

An Education Department spokesman told NewsLocal “a number” of initiatives are in place to attract teachers – particularly to regional communities.

The spokesman said an Education Future Fund valued at $400 million is used to invest in more teachers, they are offering more permanent positions, more support, more training and flexible pathways to transition into teaching.

“The department runs a range of other employment programs for future teachers and current teachers looking to retrain by supporting people who undertake university-level study that aligns with our workforce needs,” the spokesman said.

“These commitments aim to turn around the workforce crisis in NSW public schools, which last year saw a record 1854 teachers resign.

“There are currently 784.2 full-time equivalent vacant teacher positions in regional NSW.”