‘Dog-eat-dog culture’ destroying our public education system, veteran principal claims

A Melbourne principal has blown the lid on the measures needed to attract and keep staff as teacher shortages become dire.

A veteran primary school principal has lamented the state of government schools that are “bleeding staff”, saying things are worse now than in the past 50 years.

Berwick Lodge Primary School principal Henry Grossek blames a vast chasm between rich and poor schools, rising bureaucracy and private schools “hunting” the best teachers.

In a statement sent to the Herald Sun, Mr Grossek lamented the “growing evidence, almost daily, of a dog-eat-dog culture springing up across the public system” as schools scramble to acquire teachers.

“It isn’t new news to anyone that we are experiencing a teacher shortage of disturbing levels, levels I’ve not witnessed in my fifty-plus years in Victorian public schools. What is new, are the desperate measures to which principals are turning to attract and retain staff,” he said.

“It devastates me to see the wage and work conditions inducements, are being dangled in front of teachers, either to lure them out of their existing positions or have them change their minds after accepting an appointment at another school, days and even hours after doing so,” Mr Grossek said.

Principals are resorting to ‘desperate measures’ to attract and retain teachers.

He noted that graduate teachers were “offering themselves to the highest bidder”, which is often financially an advantaged school best placed to offer lucrative inducements.

This is leading to “an extension of the increasing chasm between the educational outcomes of advantaged and disadvantaged students as reflected in current NAPLAN results,” Mr Grossek said.

His comments come as 2022 NAPLAN figures show the gap between the educational outcomes of students from a low and high socio-economic status (SES) can reach as much as four years.

The year 9 grammar average score of 523 for low-SES students is equal to the year five average of 526 attained by high-SES students. Those who have university-educated parents are 17 times more likely to be in the top band for achievement in year nine than those whose parents didn’t finish high school.

“Private schools, for their part, are also hunting. They have in their sights, public school teachers, and have no hesitation in offering them juicy inducements to swap systems. Hamstrung financially, many public schools in Victoria are bleeding staff.”

Mr Grossek said the growth in bureaucracy, as reported in the Herald Sun last week, had added to the problem.

“Little wonder then that school staff are exasperated, exhausted and exiting the profession.”

It come as demand for teachers has surged by almost 40 per cent in Victoria, as schools scramble to fill places for 2023.

Trevor Cobbold from Save Our Schools said the attainment gap between high and low-income students “points to the need to provide more funding for disadvantaged students, the vast majority of whom attend under-funded public schools”.