NSW teacher shortage: Union head Angelo Gavrielatos and Coogee MP Marjorie O’Neill slam government, Department refutes claims

The teachers’ union says a ‘perfect storm’ of low wages, growing workload and an ageing population is driving a serious teacher shortage, with one school losing 15 teachers in a single year. But the Department of Education refutes those claims.

Burnout and low salaries have driven more than 2000 teachers out of the profession across NSW, unions and politicians say, leading to protests across the state this week.

As of last month, there were 2383 empty teaching positions across 1251 schools according to Department of Education data.

The concerning shortage has forced many teachers – as high as one third for those in special education – to work outside the subject area they studied at university.

That’s according to NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos, who listed the “perfect storm” of factors underpinning the crisis: non-competitive salaries, increased workload, an ageing workforce, student enrolment growth and teaching degree enrolment decline.

NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos. Picture: Dan Himbrechts

“For each vacancy you can extrapolate it’s impacted at least 30 kids so do the maths,” Mr Gavrielatos said.

“Hundreds and thousands of kids are impacted here. Every day there are hundreds of classes disrupted, split or merged or playgrounds minimally supervised and the most disturbing thing about all of this is the government has known for a long time … they know it’s a non-competitive salary and unsustainable workloads – that’s written in their own briefings.”

Coogee MP Marjorie O'Neill said teachers are exhausted and not receiving proper pay. Picture: Monique Harmer

The teacher shortage had hit Sydney’s eastern suburbs hard, according to Coogee MP, Marjorie O’Neill.

She said Randwick’s Rainbow Street Public School and South Coogee Public School had 15 and 13 teachers leave the profession respectively, a claim refuted by the NSW Education Department.

“We know that a lot of our teachers are burnt out and wages are not competitive,” she said.

“We know that the wage cap is impacting them and for around the eastern suburbs – when you look at the cost of living – it’s so much higher [than elsewhere in NSW]”.

“Over the last two years workload has increased, they’ve been required to adapt and change to Covid and there has been very little recognition with how much work they’ve had to put in.”

However, an Education Department spokesman said the state government was on track to meet a 2019 commitment to recruit 4600 new teachers across a four year period.

“(The government) is working on a number of further initiatives to deliver a sustainable supply of quality teachers into the future, particularly in critical subjects and locations,” he said.

“To encourage people to choose teaching we must promote the profession not tear it down.”

The government, in October, announced a $125 million NSW Teacher Supply Strategy to respond to the complexities surrounding employing teachers and retraining them.

Alice Leung, president of the Inner West Teachers Association. Picture: Alexi Demetriadi

Teachers on the ground are far from happy, and paint a picture of burnout and arduous hours.

Alice Leung, federation representative at Concord High School and president of the Inner West Teachers Association, said the effect of shortages went further than just numbers.

“For high school teachers, our working conditions and teaching hours haven’t changed since the 1950s,” she said.

“We’ve got high workloads and poor working conditions, and teachers are at a breaking point.

“When a teacher is absent, we can’t find replacements – so teachers are getting removed from their planning time and covering other classes, which means they end up taking work home until 10pm.”

John Sidoti, NSW MP for Drummoyne, talks with inner west teachers who are calling for the state government to return to negotiations. Picture: Alexi Demetriadi

Ms Leung was speaking at a rally at the office of Drummoyne MP John Sidoti to push the state government to engage in genuine negotiations to address shortages, with similar events planned across the state, including in Nowra and Armidale.

“We need (the government) to offer more than a 2.5 per cent wage increase, we need at least five per cent to keep pace with inflation and also two hours planning time per week for every single teacher,” she said.

Inner west teachers along with John Sidoti MP after raising their concerns with the state member for Drummoyne. Picture: Alexi Demetriadi

Martine Eve-Macleod, a fellow member of the Inner West Teachers Association, explained how exhausted the situation has made her.

“We work flat out every single working day, and then Sunday to prepare lessons, and then if reports are due you work Saturday as well,” she said.

“This is not a five-day-a-week job and I can’t physically do anymore without burning out.”

Mr Gavrielatos said there had been a 30 per cent drop in the number of students studying teaching – only half of whom graduate – and 11,000 teachers would need to join the profession over the next decade to meet the predicted increase of 200,000 student enrolments.

The NSW Department of Education was approached for comment.