Hunter teachers are becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of government support within the public education sector, which has imposed overwhelming workloads and uncompetitive salaries on teaching faculties.
Public school teacher and Lake Macquarie Teachers Federation spokesperson, Michelle Jarrett, said out of 2,383 unfilled teaching positions state-wide, 40 were in the Lake Macquarie and Newcastle areas.
She said this was a result of insufficient pay, unfair working conditions and an unwillingness for current teachers to deal with the stress of staff shortages across the sector.
“All the public sector workers including teachers, who were the essential workers during COVID need to be recognised … they need more than thanks and they need better wages and conditions,” Jarrett said.
“We would like the government to come to the negotiating table, teachers are getting tired and old teachers like me aren’t going to stay.”
Jarrett said that government rhetoric promising to fix teacher shortages by returning retired teachers to the classroom would fail.
She said urgent action was required to ensure spaces were filled as older staff leave the workforce.
“At the moment our biggest problem is with attracting people into teacher training,” Jarrett said.
“As the pay rate isn’t equal to that of other graduates in other professions, teaching is an unpopular profession to go into – people earn more going into anything else.”
Jarrett said for those who did enter and complete teacher training, their entry into the workforce was not an appealing one.
“When new graduates go out to teach that’s when the enormous workload comes into play, and they often choose not to stay very long because they work very long hours for very little pay,” she said.
Jarrett blamed the crisis on the outdated expectations and responsibilities imposed on public education staff, which she said had not kept up with the constantly evolving school system.
“Teachers still only have two hours preparation time per week for all of their lessons,” she said.
“This is despite the fact that there are more students enrolled in schools now, who have far more complex needs.
“We also have more students with numerous types of disabilities in schools, and the government requires us to provide so much more data now.”
Jarrett said there was “more and more work” despite no increase in the amount of time allocated for teacher preparation.
“An understaffed high school could mean we’ve got kids out in the playground rather than being taught properly or we’ve got a teacher teaching outside of their area of expertise … so there might be a PE teacher teaching Science or Mathematics,” Jarrett said.
“In a primary school, if we can’t get casuals due to shortages, we divide up the students in that class and send them to sit in the back of other classrooms … that means we’ve got a teacher teaching their own class plus a bunch of extras.”
She said in these situations students fail to get the individual learning attention they need for effective education.
According to figures provided to Parliament, classes across the state are being combined on a scale previously unheard of, while students are being subjected to minimal supervision on hundreds of occasions due to growing teacher shortages.
NSW Teachers Federation President, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the findings were alarming.
“There was a government report that said unless we lift salaries and address workloads, we will not be able to attract the teachers we need.”
Gavrielatos said the government knew the causes and therefore, knew the solution to the teacher shortage.
“The government is refusing to act on its root causes: unsustainable workloads and uncompetitive salaries,” he said.
On March 22, 70 local teachers represented their respective Hunter schools by attending a march outside of school hours at Gregson Park.
The demonstration formed part of the More Than Thanks campaign that is protesting the current working conditions and demanding a pay increase of 5 per cent for teachers in the sector.
However, Jarrett said this would be difficult to attain as existing legislation prevents such an increase.
“The Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) cannot give teachers a wage rise because legislation in NSW locks public sector workers into a wage rise of no more than 2.04 per cent,” she said.
“This is despite the fact that the Consumer Price Index is currently sitting at 3.5 per cent, which means they are actually offering us a wage loss.”
Jarrett said teachers were desperate for politicians to intervene and force an alternative government solution so more pay could be offered.
Jarrett said has met with State Member for Lake Macquarie Greg Piper, who voiced his support for the More Than Thanks Campaign.
State Member for Newcastle Tim Crakanthorp, State Member for Charlestown Jodie Harrison and State Member for Wallsend Sonia Hornery also support the campaign.
Hornery introduced a notice of motion in State Parliament last month calling on the government to make salaries more competitive with other professions, and ensure there was an appropriate increase in salaries that recognised the higher skills and expertise of teachers.
“As a former teacher I completely understand the issues our teachers are talking about,” Hornery said.
“Without great teachers, our kids don’t get a great education.
Maia O’Connor