Tamworth's Teachers' Federation representative says teacher shortage worsening across New England North West

The federation's organiser for the New England, Katie Sullivan, told the Leader there are currently in excess of 90 teacher vacancies across the Tamworth electorate, and 110 across the Northern Tablelands.

She said federal government documents obtained by The Guardian predicting NSW will be short-staffed by 1700 educators within three years, actually falls short of what the federation has been predicting.

"It's very concerning because every student has a right to learn and if we don't have a qualified teacher in front of them then they're not going to get that quality education that they deserve," she said.

"Shortages are across the board, from primary right through to secondary, but shortages are higher in specialised subjects such as Science and Maths."

Ms Sullivan said next door in the Barwon electorate there's currently 150 vacancies and there are 700 vacancies in electorates that are held by Nationals MPs.

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"You'd be hard pressed to find a school across the New England North West that doesn't have either a class merged, split or placed under minimal supervision because of the shortages," she said.

"Places like Armidale, a university town, can't even attract teachers.

"Three of seven student counsellor positions are uncovered in the Armidale area, there's a massive counsellor shortage. Teachers are working more than 60 hours a week."

Earlier this month local teachers threatened to go on strike if the government refused to drop a plan to cut wages. Federation members lobbied for the government to back their demands for a rise of 5 to 7.5 per cent every year for two years.

They're also calling on the government to implement the recommendations of the Gallop Inquiry that the federation commissioned in February last year.

"We want the workload reduced by giving teachers extra release from face-to-face time and at the moment we're asking for an extra two hours a week," Ms Sullivan added.

"The two per cent pay increase we've been offered doesn't cover the cost of living. Inflation at the moment is 3.5 per cent, so in real terms we're actually taking a pay cut.

"There's so many people that I'm speaking to just saying I don't know how long I can do this, I'm exhausted and we're not even at the end of Term 1 yet."

The NSW Department of Education said it is tackling teacher supply at multiple levels, including growing overall supply through recruitment strategies like Recruitment Beyond NSW, streamlining the process for mid-career professionals to move into teaching and the expansion of the successful Rural Experience Program.

A spokesperson said the NSW government is on track to deliver its commitment to recruit an additional 4,600 teachers over the next four years.

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