MUSWELLBROOK High School staff are taking "direct action" to highlight teacher shortages, the NSW Teachers Federation says, as it ramps up pressure on the Coalition government over vacancies in rural and regional NSW.
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Teachers have been speaking with parents at the school gate to highlight the level of staff vacancies at the school.
Teachers Federation organiser Jack Galvin Waight said similar protest action was likely to take place at Merriwa Central School, which was also struggling with teacher recruitment.
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Mr Galvin said Muswellbrook had eight permanent teacher vacancies and 221 lessons a fortnight taught by teachers outside of their expertise. Merriwa had five permanent vacancies and, according to a parliamentary inquiry, had 3800 split or merged classes during 2021 and the first half of 2022.
Mr Galvin Waight said teachers at both schools had written to the Education Minister, Sarah Mitchell, setting a deadline for the government to "fully staff their schools".
"That deadline has elapsed, so I expect we will see more such action," Mr Galvin Waight said.
With the state election less than four weeks away, the federation is calling on the government to match Labor's commitments to education.
Mr Galvin Waight said opposition leader Chris Minns had promised to scrap the annual wages cap that the federation says has left NSW teachers paid substantially less than teachers in other states.
In November, the NSW Industrial Relations Commission inked an agreement giving teachers two annual increases of 3 per cent.
Mr Galvin Waight said Mr Minns had written to say a Labor government would scrap the wages cap and instructed the education department to engage in genuine negotiation to lift salaries and cut workloads.
"Teacher shortages are crippling our schools as teachers continue to burn out while our students are missing out," Mr Galvin Waight said.
"Resignations are now outstripping retirements as teachers struggle to cope with 60-hour working weeks and a salary that hasn't kept pace with other professions."
While numbers of vacant teaching positions vary from month to month, an internal education department "teacher dashboard" from November shows a near doubling, from 1500 in mid-2021 to almost 3000 in October 2022.
It showed 55 per cent of vacancies were in regional and rural NSW, with vacancy rates in the department's nine regions ranging from 3.89 per cent to 8.18 per cent.
Responding on February 8 to an upper house inquiry into teacher shortages, the government said classroom teachers could earn up to $113,000 a year and principals up to $200,000.
It said NSW salaries were "competitive" with other states and had risen by almost 30 per cent since 2011.
Responding to the federation's claims, Ms Mitchell said, "Labor and their union bosses are peddling a scare campaign".
"The fact is that there are currently just 35 vacancies across the 45 schools in the Upper Hunter - with 64 per cent of schools having zero vacancies and 22 per cent having just one," Ms Mitchell said.
She said more than 2100 vacancies were filled in the holidays, and NSW had 10,000 more teachers than a decade ago.
The federation accused Upper Hunter MP Dave Layzell of having "done nothing" about the shortages, but a spokesperson for Mr Layzell said he had met with the federation and the nurses' union, and had been told of a reluctance to work in the Upper Hunter.
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Ian Kirkwood
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
