Teacher union slams ‘glib’ Andrews as kids sit on floor, VCE classes cancelled amid teacher crisis

A “revolving door” of casual teachers, students forced to sit on the floor and VCE classes being cancelled are the result of Victoria’s worst teacher shortage crisis since the late-1960s and 70s.

Victorian students are being forced to sit on the floor in the back of classrooms as a result of severe teacher shortages across the public system.

The education union has intensified its war with the Andrews government, sounding the alarm on a broken system, and warning the Premier is failing to invest in a solution to the chronic problem.

Victorian branch president of the Australian Education Union Meredith Peace said the state was battling an “unprecedented” teacher vacancy rate of 2500.

This is forcing schools to combine classrooms and cancel VCE lessons, Ms Peace said.

“Some of our youngest children are sitting in the back of classrooms on the floor because they haven’t got a classroom teacher for the day,” she said.

Some Victorian students have not had a permanent teacher all year.

“We’ve got kids in schools who’ve not had a permanent fully qualified teacher in front of their classroom all year. They’ve had a revolving door of teachers coming in on a casual basis, if the school can find them, or other teachers within the school covering up those gaps.

“It is pretty clear to us that the Andrews government does not have a plan. They have not invested significantly. They have put forward a number of initiatives in the recent state budget but simply they are playing around the edges to what is a really serious problem.”

Ms Peace said the current teacher shortages are the worst in “many, many decades”, stating: “I think we have to go back to the late 1960s, 1970s to see the kind of shortages we are seeing right now“.

The education union has taken out full page advertisements in newspapers calling for a meeting with the government.

Mr Andrews rejected any suggestion he was ignoring the teaching union. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday said he was yet to meet with Ms Peace but rejected any suggestions he was ignoring the union.

“There is some significant challenges that we have to work out together, not necessarily writing open letters, although how the union chooses to spend members money is a matter for them,” he said.

Ms Peace fired back: “We continue to see a Premier who is more interested making glib comments to the media about our campaign about teacher shortages rather than actually devising his own plan and putting forward some investment.”

Sunshine North Primary School Principal Nelly Santos said the teacher shortage had impacted her, as her struggles to recruit staff forced her to put job ads out months before teachers leave.

The state government on Tuesday announced $485m to extend its tutor program for the next two years in a bid to provide literacy and numeracy support for students.