By Alex Crowe
Schools have been left without regular classroom teachers well into term one, blaming administrative delays that prevented teachers from registering weeks into the school year.
Relief teachers have been called in to plug the gaps left by new staff who have been hired but had their registration process stalled, putting additional staffing pressures on Victorian schools already experiencing a nationwide teacher shortage.
Multiple schools were relying on relief teachers weeks into the school year due to registration delays.Credit: iStock
Lilydale High School principal Wendy Powson paid a casual teacher to be in a classroom for weeks, despite also having her newly hired permanent teacher there, as the new staff member awaited registration.
“The double up is costing us more than it should. But I can’t afford to lose him either,” she said.
Powson said the teacher, who was completing a university degree, had applied for registration under the permission to teach policy in the first week of December but was still unregistered in March.
The policy allows students in their final year of study to teach and was introduced to address the workforce shortage.
Powson said registration, administered by the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT), seemed to follow no priority order, with some processed quickly and others taking months.
She said VIT had informed Lilydale High the registration was waiting on confirmation of her new staff member’s 2025 university enrolment, despite it having been sent through.
“We’re just trying to put the best teaching staff in front of our kids. He’s going to be brilliant,” Powson said.
The teaching body has denied there are delays in registration processing times, pointing to the fact 2200 new teachers and early childhood educators were registered for the start of the school year, as well as 1200 permission to teach holders.
Chief executive officer Martin Fletcher said applications usually took four to six weeks, depending on the circumstances of the applicant.
“Despite an increase in applications, VIT was able [to] reduce its average application assessment time from 3.8 to 3.1 weeks in the last financial year,” Fletcher said.
However, Australian Principals Federation branch president Tina King said several Victorian principals had raised concerns about delays.
“Given the ongoing teacher shortages, we expect and encourage an expedited process to ensure these individuals can enter classrooms promptly, maintaining continuity in learning programs,” King said.
Alamanda K-9 College in Point Cook, the state’s biggest public school, with more than 3300 students, was among the schools impacted.
In a letter to parents, principal Lynette Jobson said multiple classrooms were relying on relief teachers several weeks into the school term due to registration delays.
“The impacted staff are desperate to be with their classes, so it is frustrating on many fronts,” she said. “Every class will have a teacher, albeit it is taking longer than desired.”
Jobson told The Age the situation had since been resolved and the registrations had been approved.
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