ON average, any day this year, 162.2 full-time equivalent teacher absences went unfilled by casual relief teachers in the ACT, up from only 59.7 in 2019, according to a new report.

A Teacher Shortage Taskforce report, released today (August 22) by The Australian Education Union (AEU) and the ACT Education Directorate, shows in Term 2, 2022 – across an average week – 339 classes were split up and 210 classes were combined daily.

While the report acknowledges the significant challenge of the national teacher shortage, and the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on staff and schools, it includes 20 recommendations to help build and support the ACT public school system to better adapt to shortages and workforce challenges.

One of the recommendations is a Five-Year Classroom Teacher Attraction and Retention Plan – ideally to be implemented by 2023, with clear timelines and deliverables – to help attract new teachers and grow the workforce.

Other key recommendations include:

• Encouraging the use of inbuilt relief teachers, to enable a more secure form of employment, and will support schools in managing teacher absences.
• Developing centrally funded incentives for recently retired teachers or teachers to return from long-term leave, including paid time for mandatory training, payments for professional teacher registration and Working with Vulnerable People registration costs.
• Actively monitoring and identifying schools experiencing ongoing teacher shortages due to high rates of absences, inability to fill positions, and ongoing instances of combing classes.

The Taskforce found the current casual relief model no longer meets the day-to-day staffing requirements in schools, and there is a need to develop a model that will increase teacher availability to cover unplanned absences and to provide support in the day-to-day management of school operations.

President of The Australian Education Union ACT Branch, Ms Angela Burroughs says the recommendations in this report are the outcome of constructive collaboration between the AEU and the Education Directorate.

“Together with ongoing action to address teachers’ salaries and demanding workload, these recommendations provide immediate and longer-term practical solutions that will alleviate the teacher shortage,” said Burroughs.

The report can be found here.

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