By Mikayla van Loon
The teacher shortage occurring right across the country, which is only expected to get worse, has hit the Yarra Ranges community, with a major high school feeling the effects.
Lilydale High School principal Wendy Powson said senior school students in Years 11 and 12 have had to, in some instances, undertake independent study with not enough teachers to cover all classes.
“We’re just holding on, I’m not sure how we will manage for the rest of the term,” she said.
Although having advertised two short term contract positions, Ms Powson said there has been no interest nor any applications received.
Describing the situation as dire, Ms Powson said “this has been coming on for quite a while now, it’s not just Covid.”
But she said the pandemic has compounded all the reasons teachers are either choosing to leave the profession or young people are not choosing to study teaching.
In just a single day, Ms Powson said she had 28 teachers away, either from sickness or other reasons. On Thursday 11 August, 15 teachers had either called in sick or were away.
“And that’s on top of the shortage,” she said.
The Australian Department of Education Teacher Workforce Shortages issue paper has identified that between “2021 and 2025, the demand for secondary school teachers is projected to exceed the number of new graduate teachers by approximately 4,100 teachers.”
The report also noted initial teacher education graduates declined by 17 per cent between 2017 and 2020.
State and Federal education ministers, alongside teachers and education professionals, met in Canberra on Friday 12 August to discuss the future of teaching and attracting young people to the profession.
Monash University researcher and lecturer in educational leadership, Dr Fiona Longmuir, conducted a survey around teacher satisfaction in 2019, which highlighted the strain already being put on teachers.
Findings from a new survey, completed in 2022 and to be released in October, Ms Longmuir said have dramatically changed and not for the better.
“We’d argue that the focus needs to be on retention and not attraction,” she said in a Media Centre for Education Research Australia webinar on Thursday 11 August.
“Our work also makes it pretty clear that excessive workloads and resulting burnout is the most significant contributing factor to staff shortages across Australia.”
Ms Longmuir said the working conditions imposed on teachers are driving passionate educators from the profession.
This is something Ms Powson said was being seen at her own school and across the board.
“The joy of teaching has been eroded by the burden of administrative tasks, like PDs, surveys, note taking on everything,” she said.
“The joy of being with the kids has been diminished.”
Ms Powson said the effects of flipping education on its head during the pandemic and coming back to the classroom has left many “still feeling the ‘hangover’ of Covid.”
While independent study for senior students has imparted some positives of individual growth, responsibility and resilience, there is some worry for these students heading into exams.
From the round table discussions, Ms Powson said “we need short term solutions” to help fill positions in the immediate future.
Federal education minister Jason Clare said in a press conference after the round table discussion that a National Action Plan would be drawn up by the secretaries of each education department prior to the next meeting in December.
Victorian education minister Natalie Hutchins said at the press conference aimed to reassure teachers that they are seen and heard and will be moving forward.
“We know that Covid has presented so many more challenges in our classrooms and to our teaching,” she said.
“Even post-Covid we’ve heard today how teachers are dealing with issues they’ve never had to deal with in the past with mental health on the rise for students and teachers themselves.
“We’ve heard that people are feeling burnout and we want to say that we are working collaboratively across all of the states to deliver better outcomes for you. Certainly in Victoria, we have a real focus on the mental health of our teachers and our students going forward.”
