Alarm at shortage of relief teachers in Tasmania’s city and rural schools

Tasmanian urban and rural schools and colleges are regularly struggling to find enough relief teachers to cover absent staff, the Australian Education Union has warned.

TASMANIAN schools are struggling to get relief teachers and students’ learning will suffer, the teachers’ union says.

The Australian Education Union’s Tasmanian president David Genford said there was a relief teacher shortage in both city and rural schools and colleges.

He said he had recently visited schools across the state and the lack of relief teachers and disability funding were the two biggest areas of concern.

“I think Covid has played a part because before the pandemic a teacher who was unwell might go to school but now they do the right thing and stay home,” Mr Genford said.

“University students also stopped being available and after we had the lockdown, older relief teachers decided teaching wasn’t worth the risk.”

Australian Education Union Tasmania president David Genford.

Education Minister Sarah Courtney said a national teacher recruitment program had begun and the Department of Education had implemented strategies to ensure appropriate levels of relief teachers were available and registered.

“This includes promoting relief employment opportunities and working with the University of Tasmania and the Teachers Registration Board to both encourage fourth-year education students to work as relief teachers,” Ms Courtney said.

“Greater awareness of winter illness and active discouragement of presenteeism, to reduce the risks of Covid, has contributed to an increased demand for relief staff in 2021.”

Education Minister Sarah Courtney.

Mr Genford said if there was a shortage of relief teachers a principal or senior staff member could take classes or students were put in other classes.

“If you have a class of 27 you can put nine in three other classes but that is hard for teachers if they don’t know an individual student’s learning plan,” he said.

“A teacher shortage can also affect other programs such as literacy support and behavioural support which means students miss out.

“A student with a behavioural problem can act up and that affects other students in the class who want to engage in learning.

“If specialist teachers in primary schools are not available the teacher has to go above and beyond their usual workload and that can lead to burnout.”

Mr Genford said it was important to attract more people to the teaching profession.

“It is difficult to solve the lack of teachers in the short term but we need to encourage more people to the profession and we need to reduce workloads for teachers.

“At the end of the year Tasmanian teachers will be the lowest paid in the country and our young teachers will want to move interstate for better experiences and lower cost of living.”

Ms Courtney said individual schools co-ordinated their own relief staff arrangements with assistance through various recruitment activities.

“The department will continue working on further strategies to ensure there is sufficient numbers of relief staff right across Tasmania,” she said.