The extent of Victoria's teacher shortage is again in the spotlight with new data revealing job ads for some schools in the state are going unanswered. The education department figures show some of the worst areas are in regional Victoria where the need for teachers has never been more acute.
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00:00 Principal Dennis Mitchell has spent more than a year trying to fill these classrooms with
00:06 teachers. A wave of staff falling sick this week couldn't have come at a worse time.
00:11 I had to split classrooms to cover them. I had no option but to do that,
00:15 otherwise we didn't have enough teachers for our school children.
00:18 His primary school in Mildura isn't the only school struggling with teacher shortages.
00:23 I was talking to a year nine boy who's had six English teachers for the year so far.
00:29 At Wodonga Senior Secondary College, finding staff has been next to impossible.
00:34 We've been putting up jobs all year and we, you know, like 20 to 24 positions
00:42 constantly and getting no applicants at all.
00:46 New figures from the Education Department show public primary schools in regional Victoria have
00:50 been the worst affected by teacher shortages, with many struggling to get more than two
00:55 applications per job last year. And it's even worse in secondary schools,
01:00 where regions like Ousegippsland and Goulburn received less than one application per vacancy.
01:05 That means that when school starts next year we will have schools and classrooms
01:11 where they don't have the qualified teaching staff that they need.
01:14 This is a crisis that has been years in the making. This hasn't happened overnight.
01:19 This is as a consequence of the COVID years.
01:22 Financial incentives of up to $50,000 are available to encourage teachers to head to the regions.
01:28 More than 400 have been paid by the government in the last two financial years,
01:32 with figures showing more than 90% of those teachers stayed in the public school system.
01:37 Now is a great time to choose a career as a teacher.
01:41 But principals say cash bonuses aren't enough to combat high staff turnover.
01:46 We've inducted 96 teachers into the school this year, so normally it would be about 10.
01:52 This issue is likely to be top of the agenda tomorrow's national meeting of education ministers.
01:58 The Australian Education Union says Victoria must push for more federal investment in public schools.
02:04 No matter what some of the critics say, funding is critical to resolve the many
02:09 issues we have in our public education system.
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