Mountain Heights School at Queenstown plagued by staff and teachers shortages
A remote Tasmanian school is at crisis point as it struggles to secure teachers. What the union says needs to be done to fix the problem.
West Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from West Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A remote Tasmanian school has been forced to appeal to bigger ones hundreds of kilometres away to cover a severe shortage of teachers.
Last year, Mountain Heights School at Queenstown struggled to retain staff, and it’s a problem the education union says it will continue to deal with this year.
“We saw during the year a lack of relief staff, and even normal staff, to the point where at the end of the school year, the department was calling for teachers from Parklands High School and Hellyer College to go down there and teach,” Australian Education Union Tasmania president David Genford said.
“Unfortunately, issues with our remote schools have been going on for a long time, and now we’re seeing similar issues happen more in our metro schools; it’s even harder to staff the isolated schools.
“When teachers were graduating 20 years ago there would be no jobs in Hobart and Launceston, so you would go to the West Coast for three years knowing you are guaranteed a job at a metro school.
“Now, because there are so many jobs available in Hobart and Launceston, that isn’t an avenue that so many people are choosing.”
Mr Genford said there were vast differences between outcomes for students in remote and metro areas.
“The NAPLAN results were clear that the further away you are from a city centre, the lower results you have, and that’s across Australia,” he said.
“It’s understandable for students when they don’t have regular staff and when they don’t have experienced staff.
Mr Genford said more incentives needed to be in place to encourage teachers to work at schools like Mountain Heights.
“For younger teachers, you should be looking at things like HECS debt payments to have that reduced quickly.
“For more experienced teachers, I think you need to look at cash incentives.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education, Children and Young People said it had established a West Coast Schools Working Group to develop strategies to alleviate issues such as staffing.
“These include incentives such as additional rental assistance, relocation expenses, additional salary, leave and professional development,” they said.
They said there had been several recent appointments, including Principal and other senior leadership positions.
“Recruitment will continue throughout January for any vacant teaching positions, as is the case for schools statewide,” they said.
Zeehan resident describes how bushfires got dangerously close
For Central Hotel Zeehan Publican Larry Cuevas, it was the smoke that was the toughest part of having to deal with the bushfires that are ravaging the West Coast.
WATCH: Guide gets perfect vantage point of West Coast bushfires
It was a race to get up to the summit of Mount Oakleigh, but Shaun Mittwollen managed to see the West Coast bushfires better than most. Here’s what it was like seeing the fires so close.