A generation is at risk from this school staffing perfect storm
AUSTRALIA’S educational goals for excellence and equity face a major hurdle. A rapidly increasing number of principals are thinking of calling it quits, which will throw policy priorities into turmoil.
But, most importantly, it risks educational and life opportunities for thousands of Australian kids. We know principals work long hours and that administrative burdens reduce their time for teaching.
But after three years of Covid-19 and managing the impact of natural disasters, new stresses have emerged, supercharged by teacher shortages. These shortages have been so well documented that there’s now a National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.
Ask the principal at your children’s school, and you’re likely to find classes collapsed, excursions cancelled and teachers unable to attend professional learning.
Ask your children how many relieving teachers they’ve had. Many principals have taken up large teaching workloads to cover classes, using time for those administrative tasks which already crowd diaries.
One laughed when I asked how they were going in sourcing relieving teachers to cover absences; it signalled a deep frustration even more acute for those in regional communities.
And, like late-night TV marketing, “just wait, there’s more”. For the first time since our Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety, and Wellbeing Survey started in 2011, managing students’ and teachers’ mental health are in the top five sources of stress.
It’s a perfect storm, with each source of stress feeding the others. Supporting student learning and mental health is demanding at the best of times, but the constant disruption caused by teacher shortages increases these demands.
The likelihood of an orderly, safe, and positive learning environment diminishes when there isn’t enough staff.