Teacher strike: 'Our kids deserve more': New England North West teachers strike as staff shortages worsen

More than 300 teachers and principals from across the New England North West stopped work for 24 hours, striking for the first time in nearly a decade.

Among their demands is a salary increase of between five to 7.5 per cent a year, as well as a solution to staffing issues crippling the state.

Department of Education figures show that of the 44,500 permanent teaching positions in NSW public schools, 3,038 were vacant in mid-November.

Armidale Teachers' Association president Michael Schiffer said chronic teacher shortages in schools across Armidale and Northern Tablelands region are causing the collapse of classes.

"Our kids are missing out on learning and we can't find specialist teachers in our high schools," he told the Leader.

"Right now, next term we have almost 50 per cent of our school counsellor positions vacant from Armidale to the Queensland border."

He said student learning and wellbeing needs are simply not being met.

"Our kids' potential in life is being missed because the government won't step up and ensure that every school has an appropriately qualified teacher in front of every class," he said.

President of Narrabri-Wee Waa Teachers Association and Gwabegar Public School principal Katie Sullivan said she's been personally impacted by the shortages, having to cancel leave to attend to students.

"I hope that this strike will give students more qualified teachers and I hope that it will give them time to be able to prepare the high quality lessons that they deserve," she said.

The shortages have been felt right across the region, with Gunnedah Teachers' Association president Jenny Sullivan, who works at Gunnedah High School, describing the collapse of classes on a day-to-day basis.

"With seven vacancies at the school, unfortunately in a number of cases there will be circumstances where the special education unit is collapsed and those teachers are outsourced," she said.

Local public schools across the region were impacted on Tuesday, with only minimal supervision available for students, but casual teacher at Attunga Public School, Emily Thomas-Moore, said teachers were left without a choice.

"We are here because of how much we love our students and because of how much we want them to succeed," she said.

"If we didn't want them to succeed, if we didn't care about how they were going to go in life, we wouldn't bother showing up."

NSW Teachers' Federation country organiser Mercurius Goldstein said the rally was a 'historic' occasion and called directly upon NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet to solve the issue.

"The only thing that should concern us is the Premier's failure to end the teacher shortages by doing what needs to be done. That is where the solution lies," he said.

In a statement sent to the Leader, the NSW Department of Education said while monetary incentives have their place and can be useful to attract and retain teachers, they are not the only answer.

"There are many factors that draw people to, or away from, teaching," the spokesperson said.

"NSW teachers' salaries are competitive both nationally and internationally."

On the staffing issues, the department said it has recruited 3,400 additional teachers since 2019 alone.

"There are more teachers employed than ever before. we have a total of more than 90,000 teachers on the payroll, including temporary, part-time and casual teachers."

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