Schools struggle as maths, science teachers in short supply

A nationwide shortage of STEM teachers is creating a “significant challenge” for Victorian schools, forcing many to use unqualified teachers for maths and science classes.

More than two in five Victorian principals say maths and science classes are not taught by teachers qualified to teach the subject, a new survey has revealed.

The latest poll by the Australian Education Union shows 67 per cent out of 30 secondary principals surveyed say maths is one of the most difficult subjects to fill vacancies and retain staff, technology at 50 per cent and languages other than English at 30 per cent.

The survey revealed that 43 per cent of the principals surveyed have maths and science classes at their school that are being taught by a teacher who is not fully qualified to teach the subject.

One in four out of 124 primary and secondary principals say their school has experienced teacher shortages in the past year.

Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute director Professor Tim Marchant said the lack of supply of maths teachers in Australia was a “significant challenge”.

“All the states and territories and the federal government really need to work together to encourage more graduates into the teaching profession to teach mathematics,” Prof Marchant said.

“The percentage of out-of-field teachers is much higher in Australia than other countries and that is a challenge as well in where we need to support the teaching profession to build up their qualifications to teach mathematics.”

Another recent AEU Victorian survey, which interviewed more than 10,000 teachers, principals and education support staff, found 86 per cent of 7573 teachers felt their workload was “never, seldom, or sometimes manageable”.

Some 84 per cent of 503 principals felt their main concern was workload, 73 per cent said there were too many competing initiatives and priorities, 60 per cent were concerned about stress, while 58 per cent were concerned about lack of funding for schools.

Victorian Principals Association president Andrew Dalgleish said: “There’s a multitude of reasons that have impacted on teachers’ stress and pressure including Covid-19.”

Australian Education Union Victorian branch president Meredith Peace said public school teachers needed the state government to address the excessive workloads Victorian teachers experienced, and the federal government to address the critical under-resourcing of public schools.

An Education Department spokeswoman said Victoria was leading the way in supporting school staff through more than $51m investment in the Safe and Well in Education Strategy to embed health, safety and wellbeing into the education sector.

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Originally published as Schools struggle as maths, science teachers in short supply