Cost of replacement teachers soars for Victorian schools

Schools have chalked up half a billion dollars on casual teachers as illness and exhaustion hit the workforce. See how much your school spends.

Exhausted teachers taking extra sick days, generous leave entitlements and the pandemic have contributed to Victorian schools spending more than half a billion dollars on casual teachers in the past three years alone.

Seven state schools paid more than one million in 2019 on replacement teachers, with the biggest spender Manor Lakes P-12 College on $1.19 million, analysis of the casual wages bill of every public primary and secondary school shows.

The large Wyndham school, which has 2788 students, spent $411,000 in 2020 and $900,000 in 2021.

The next highest was Copperfield College in Melbourne’s north west, which spent at least $800,000 a year on casual relief teachers, even during the pandemic, including $1.18 million in 2019.

In 2019, 1400 schools spent an average of $160,000 on relief teachers, totalling $236 million, with lockdown leading to $147 million spent in 2020, with an average of $100,000. By 2021, schools spent $180 million, with an average of $123,000 per school.

Your Teaching Agency Director Gary Keet and relief teacher Rachael Mulholland. Picture: Josie Hayden

In 2022, some schools had to replace half the teachers due to the flu, Covid or caring for sick family members, with some regional schools paying up to $700 a day to attract staff.

Casual relief teachers earn around $370 per day, but schools pay around $465 a day, with the rest going towards superannuation, work cover and a fee for the recruitment agency.

It’s estimated that in general, one in five teachers are away at any one time due to sickness or leave.

Under the 2022 enterprise agreement covering state school employees, teachers get four weeks a year annual leave, 15 days sick leave, 16 weeks maternity leave, as well as three months’ long service leave per ten years of service.

It’s likely schools will need even more casual relief teachers from 2023 as permanent staff will do an hour and a half less in face-to-face teaching and will get time off in lieu for camps and other additional duties.

Gary Keet, managing director of Your Teaching Agency, which provides casual teachers to Victorian schools, said that “with the demands on teachers going up, many are using up all their sick leave just to stay sane.

“They are working on weekends and before and after school and attending meetings and so they’re getting sick,” Mr Keet said.

He said more teachers were opting to do casual relief teaching rather than work full time in schools because they could “walk in at nine and go home at 3.30 and not worry about anything else”.

He said the leave provisions also had a big impact, with teachers able to take pro-rata long service leave after seven years.

Malcolm Elliott, president of the Australian Primary Principals Association, said Covid also played a big role in the casual wages bill for teachers.

“It’s an ongoing issue for schools – principals get phone calls at 6am telling them they will be five teachers down,” he said.

One of the teachers on Mr Keet’s books is his wife Rachel Mulholland, who does one or two days a week casual teaching at schools near their Lysterfield home.

Ms Mulholland, a mother of three, said she found casual teaching very convenient.

“The last two years were sporadic but this year it’s been constant – I could work five days if I wanted to.”

Ms Mulholland said working in regular schools enabled her to get to know the pupils. “They get excited when they hear I am coming to teach them the next day,” she said.

Many schools saw their casual teacher budget doubling or tripling between 2019 and 2021, including University High School ($431,000 to $801,000), Wyndham Secondary College ($440,000 to $659,000) and Greater Shepparton Secondary College, which went from $329,000 in 2020 to $691,000 in 2021.

The list also includes Bass Coast College, which saw its casual teaching expenditure balloon from $444,955 in 2019 to $720,530 last year.

Eleven schools saw their budgets expand by more than $100,000 compared to their pre-pandemic funding.

Meanwhile, other schools saw their CRT funding slashed over the course of the pandemic, including Armstrong Creek School, Arnolds Creek Primary School and Berwick Secondary College. Keysborough Primary School’s budget dropped from $498,000 in 2019, to $176,000 in 2021.

Meredith Peace, Australian Education Union Victorian branch president said casual relief teachers were crucial to school communities.

She said schools were allocated a budget by the department based on their enrolment numbers. But the amount schools “will be dependent on the illness rates within their staff and other factors associated with staff absences that year”.