A nationwide shortage of teachers is putting pressure on Canberra’s teaching staff, causing increasing dissatisfaction and burnout. In response, the ACT Government has set up a Teacher Shortage Taskforce, which will meet for the first time on Thursday.
The Taskforce will consider a range of issues, including covering staff absences, continuity of education (including the practice of splitting classes), teacher and school leader recruitment processes, and attraction and retention processes for the teaching workforce.
It will work with the Australian Education Union (AEU) ACT, universities, the Teacher Quality Institute, and other experts, Yvette Berry, Minister for Education and Youth Affairs, announced.
“The Taskforce provides the formalised pathway for the Education Directorate to work with the AEU and other stakeholders to seek to understand and explore the specific causes of the teacher shortage in the ACT and its impact on ACT public schools,” a government spokesperson said.
“This will assist the development of strategies, interventions, and actions to address the shortage.”
An AEU ACT survey of 1,800 educators – including most of the local public school principals and more than 1,000 teachers – published last week states that ACT teachers are ‘under-staffed, under-resourced, and under-appreciated’.
More than half of principals surveyed cannot recruit teachers, and struggle to find relief staff; many classes have to be split, which teachers say disadvantages students and increases the risk of classroom violence; and teachers are working on average two days unpaid overtime each week, missing out on important life events.
Teachers are spending more time on welfare work for their students, or documenting learning activities rather than teaching, while principals are managing school maintenance, capital works, and IT procurement – which the union believes should be a central responsibility. An alarming 85% of teachers report stress and anxiety, and many – including a third of teachers in their first three years – are considering leaving teaching because the workload is unmanageable.
“We understand the challenges that these teacher shortages are creating for our teachers, and we are working to ensure the situation can be managed appropriately,” a government spokesperson said.
“There is evidence to indicate the national teacher shortage is caused by a range of factors, commencing with initial teacher education to increasing complexity in the role teachers now perform. Additionally, the ACT public education system is a growing system with more ACT families choosing public education for their children.”
At the same time, 85% of teachers think the Education Directorate is insufficiently resourced. The government responded that ACT public schools are well-resourced; funding to Education in the ACT budget has increased in every year of the government, a spokesperson said, and funding and resources will increase again in the forthcoming 2021/22 Budget.
Keeping teachers in the profession is a concern raised in the report. To help find staff, the government set up a dedicated recruitment hotline this term, staffed by two recruitment specialist support staff, the spokesperson said. It will assist schools with immediate staffing requirements/placements, including optimising the use of casual relief staff.
In the past year, the spokesperson said, the Education Directorate has conducted ‘targeted and strategic’ recruitment campaigns of teachers and education professionals.
“The Directorate will continue to work hard to identify, attract, develop and retain classroom teachers. It will also continue to strengthen the recruitment of education professionals such as allied health, vocational education and psychology professionals to deliver additional services to children and young people in the ACT public school system.”
For instance, teachers and school leaders can receive a government scholarship to study a Master of Education at the University of Canberra; the ACT Government began a Teacher Librarian Masters Scholarship Program this year, and has offered an Early Childhood Degree Scholarship Program since 2014.
Teachers’ salaries are uncompetitive, the AEU ACT’s Patrick Judge believes, pointing to the NSW Gallop report; earnings have not increased compared to other professions, he maintains.
Teachers in Canberra are the best paid and have the best conditions in the country, the government spokesperson stated. “Every year of the current Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, teachers have had a pay rise, and we look forward to working with teachers and the union again during the upcoming EBA negotiations.”
Get all the latest Canberra news, sport, entertainment, lifestyle, competitions and more delivered straight to your inbox with the Canberra Daily Daily Newsletter. Sign up here.
