The global teacher shortage, the effects of which are being felt keenly in Australia as school returns this week, can be put down to poor pay, loss of esteem in the profession and the rise of administrative work.

That’s the view of education experts, including Dr Rachel Wilson from the University of Technology Sydney, who said schools “weave the fabric” of communities, with schools also playing a vital role in the wider economy through education.

Wilson’s comments come after federal Education Minister Jason Clare labelled the teacher shortage in Australia a “crisis”.

“We don’t have enough teachers in Australia, that’s just the truth of it. This is the most important job in the world. We don’t have enough,” she told The New Daily.

What is causing the teacher shortages

“When we say we’ve got problems with teachers, these problems are not of teachers,” Wilson said.

“They are about how we organise and support them, and we need the right data and systems to do that.”

Wilson believes the shortages seen internationally are due to low pay and low esteem.

Compounding the problem has been the rise in the amount of work teachers are expected to do and the failure of governments to plan effectively.

Specifically in Australia, she said the long hours they are expected to work has also contributed to the problem, which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but existed long before it.

Due to all this, teachers are leaving the profession prematurely and finding work in other industries.

Correna Haythorpe, federal president of the Australian Education Union, said it all sounds like a complex issue, but it isn’t.

“Over the past decade, public schools have been denied the funding that they need,” she said.

All jurisdictions in Australia find themselves in the same predicament, but New South Wales is particularly suffering.

“For well over a decade, our public school system in NSW has been under increasing pressure, courtesy of the policy failings of the previous state government,” NSW Teachers Federation president Henry Rajendra told TND.

“One of those policy settings was the wage cap that artificially suppressed teachers wages.

“Second was an increase in the workloads of teachers to unmanageable levels and third, the escalation in the number of the exponential growth in insecure employment that has led to instability.

“All of these have led to instability in our in the teaching profession in NSW.”

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University of Melbourne’s Associate Professor Daniela Fimiani Acquaro told TND that historically, it has been challenging to get people to teach in rural and remote communities.

Now schools in metropolitan areas are also struggling to find staff, she said.

Looking at the education in Australia, Wilson said there is a lack of comprehensive data, which can help identify any gaps within the system.

Much of the responsibility falls on the states, but Rajendra does see that the Albanese government has a “great opportunity” to rectify how the education system was mishandled by previous governments.

Thanks to a historic agreement with Chris Minns’ government last year, NSW teachers are now paid better than their peers in other parts of Australia, something Rajendra is grateful for.

However, he believes there is still a need to examine teacher salaries relative to other professions, so they are competitive and people don’t prematurely leave the profession for better pay.

Right now, the best thing for people to do is raise the issue of teacher shortages as a matter of urgency with their federal member of Parliament, Haythorpe said.

“Right now negotiations are taking place between Commonwealth governments and state territory governments and those negotiations are going to set the funding agreements for public schools for the future,” she said.

“We want to make sure that they actually deliver 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard to our schools so they are fully funded, we can employ more teachers, alleviate the escalate workloads, and can provide hope for students who need help with their complex learning needs.”

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Why this matters

As Wilson points to the economic benefits of having a literate and numerate society, there are benefits on a smaller scale which often get overlooked.

Acquaro noted that schools are a safe place for many children and it needs to stay that way.

Teachers need to, and do, provide unconditional support to their students, regardless of their background, circumstances or how cheeky they are, she added.

Additionally, to fill the gap, teachers still working are asked to take on subjects they don’t usually teach, which will inevitably lead to problems later on, Acquaro said.

“This is a big, big problem,” she said.

“It’s not just about not having the teachers – we’re plugging holes so that in five or 10 years, it’s going to be really significant for these kids because they haven’t had the best possible teacher or qualified teacher teaching them.”

Sometimes teachers need combine their own class with another, for whatever reason, Rajendra said. This can disrupt the teacher’s plan and the students learning.

Better funding is needed to help teachers across Australia.

Making teaching more attractive

In just about any other work environment, our peers are likely adults and probably, everyone is on the same page.

“Imagine spending a day in a classroom of teenagers or small children, convincing them that what you want them to do is great, even though it might feel terribly boring, or they might think it is,” Acquaro said.

“You’re constantly having to negotiate and, you know, trying to get people on side and working with people and improving things.”

Beyond the need for better salaries and more assistance to relieve the administration burden, the teaching profession needs to be more attractive.

Although it might be a misconception that teachers get amazing holidays (they don’t, many work through them) and great hours (their job isn’t done when the final bell rings) and there are clear issues thanks to bureaucratic failures, Acquaro insists it is one of the most rewarding jobs you can have.

Haythorpe agrees, saying when teachers are supported in their job, it is an “incredibly rewarding” career.

Like medicine or nursing, teaching is a service profession. As “corny” as it sounds, Acquaro said teachers have the ability to change a student’s life.

“It’s not just being a teacher in a school, in the classroom – you’re part of the school community,” she said.

“And I think that is really quite special.”