29 March, 2024
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TEACHER SHORTAGES BITING ACROSS NSW

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60 per cent of teachers plan to leave the teaching profession in the next five years according to a damning and sobering survey of teachers in New South Wales.
 
The survey, conducted by the NSW Upper House Education Committee ahead of its first hearing into teachers shortages in New South Wales today heard from 11,299 teachers across the state.
 
The survey also showed that
 

  • 92.1 per cent of respondents named collapsed/merged classes as the main outcome from teacher shortages;
  • 92.6 per cent think workload is the biggest contributor of teacher shortages; and
  • 92.1 per cent want to see a reduction in administration workload for teachers to help address teacher shortages.

The Teacher Shortage Inquiry established on 15 June 2022 and will examine what is contributing to teacher shortages, the impacts and the best way to address the shortages.

Tomorrow’s hearing is expected to hear from the NSW Teachers Federation, Independent Education Union and education academics from Monash University, ACU, UNSW, University of Sydney and University of Newcastle.

The teacher shortages have been a growing problem under this decade old government – and long before the pandemic.

Under the Liberals and Nationals, students are facing merged and cancelled classes and as a result, education outcomes have declined.
From 2020 to 2021 we know 10,198 experienced teachers left the profession in NSW.
Nearly 37 per cent of teachers, or 25,923 teachers, are working in casual or temporary positions.

Courtney Houssos MLC, Member of the Upper House Education Committee said:

“We have heard story after story about schools having to combine classes and run “supervised playground time” instead of lessons due to teacher shortages.

“After 12 years of this NSW Liberal-National Government, we have the fastest falling education outcomes in the world. Yet the NSW Government is failing to even acknowledge the chronic teacher shortages that are plaguing our schools.

“We understand that the biggest single way to improve these outcomes is to ensure we have quality teachers in each classroom, teaching our children.

“The huge number of survey responses shows us how important the issue of teacher shortages is to parents, teachers, principals and our schools. This inquiry will allow us to understand the impact of teacher shortages on our schools.”
COURTNEY HOUSSOS MLC
MEMBER OF UPPER HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

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