NSW Teachers Federation calls for government action to address staff shortages

A host of NSWTF delegates attended a demonstration outside NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole's Bathurst office on Friday afternoon to call for competitive salaries and sustainable workloads.

New government figures released to Parliament show 81.4 per cent of schools in the Central West had vacant permanent teaching positions in October, with the total number of vacant positions at 176.

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NSWTF president Angelo Gavrielatos said the Bathurst demonstration was one of many that had occurred across the state to send a message about the "ever-increasing crisis" of teacher shortages across the state.

"We have shortages from the Inner West, to the Far West, North West, South West and Central West; this is impacting not only teachers and principals, but students as well," Mr Gavrielatos said.

"It's undermining the right of all students to be taught by qualified teachers, and it's only set to become worse."

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Mr Gavrielatos warned that without action, the shortages of fulltime and casual teachers will grow due to rising enrolments, a 30 per cent decline in people studying teaching, a rapidly ageing workforce and unsustainable workloads.

"This problem has been further exposed by the release of secret Department of Education briefings to the state government, one of which warns we will run out of teachers in five years," he said.

"It goes on to explain that, by the end of 2023-24, there'll be 2425 vacancies, which will only continue to grow.

"The root causes are uncompetitive salaries [compared to other professions] and growing expectations [workload] of teachers and principals that are lessening the appeal of the profession.

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"Our government is in denial; it's time for them to act within the recommendations of their own departments to put in place measures to retain existing teachers and attract new ones; if we don't pay teachers what they're worth, we won't get the teachers we need."

NSW Secondary Principals' Council president and Denison College principal Craig Petersen said the shortages are being especially felt in the high school sector, where teachers are often having to teach a variety of subjects.

"High school is very subject-specific, and for a long time, teachers have had to teach outside their preferred subject area," Mr Petersen said.

"It's not just maths, science and technology, we're having trouble getting English teachers, PD/health/PE teachers, you name it."

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