Inquiry into teacher shortage returns report detailing 21 recommendations

The inquiry began in June of this year and held four hearings, receiving evidence highlighting how a shortage of teachers had caused "declining education outcomes", merged classes, periods of minimal supervision of students and teachers often being thrust into out-of-field classes.

Tim Danaher, NSW Teachers' Federation Dubbo organiser, said these situations were more than familiar for local teachers.

"If a teacher is away on sick leave that just adds to the problems of an already short-staffed school. There are examples across the state of over 100 students being supervised by one teacher - it's disgraceful," he said.

In June, there were 12 vacant positions at the Dubbo College Delroy Campus alone, the second highest number of vacancies in the state.

According to the school's internal records, as reported by the Teacher's Federation in their submission to the parliamentary inquiry, there were no teachers for more than 1,400 periods at Delroy in Term 1 of this year. In Term 2, there were more than 1,200 periods that could not be staffed.

"The Education Minister has said many times that students are still learning in those collapsed classes - but that's far from accurate. You cannot teach when you have 90 students, of all different abilities," Mr Danaher said.

"Our kids and our teachers are doing a remarkable job but imagine what we could do if we had systematic support for our teachers and every student in every class has a qualified teacher teaching them."

Responding to a survey conducted as part of the inquiry, 92 percent reported instances of cancelled or merged classes due to a teacher being unable to be found, 65 percent reported teachers taking classes out-of-field and 39 percent reported they knew of instances classes were left unsupervised.

The inquiry's report, tabled on Tuesday, makes 21 recommendations for improvement including initial teacher education, data collection practices of the Department of Education and the various programs and policies currently being implemented by the NSW Government to address the teacher shortage.

"The Department of Education's data - their own data, research and internal documents - say what the problem is. The massive workload and the non competitive salary," said Mr Danaher.

"Nothing will change unless these two major problems are addressed. Once they address that, and we get more teachers, then we can start discussing how best to support our teachers to ensure our kids get high quality education."

Although Mr Danaher has some concerns about committee chair Mark Latham's ideological approach and conclusions in the report, he said the process of the inquiry was valuable to put the concerns of teachers out there publicly.

"Mark Latham has put forward propositions like 'teachers should work nine-to-five' well, we're currently working nine-to-ten. Everyday. He's also made suggestions like 'teachers should only have four weeks annual leave per year' - but teachers already work all through our holidays'," he said.

"Anything Mark Latham has to push forward and any of his ideas and suggestions are rejected by the profession. He has no background in education and should have no voice in education policy or direction."

"But the information about what's happening in our schools is out there now. It's freely available to everyone, it's been put before parliament."

The inquiry will resume in early 2023, with an official response from the government due back on February 8.

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