PRUE CAR MP
NSW LABOR DEPUTY LEADER
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION

PRUE CAR, NSW LABOR DEPUTY LEADER: Prue Car here, NSW Labor Deputy Leader and Shadow Minister for Education, just a few comments from me about schools related issues this afternoon. Well, reports about principals being under ever increasing stress and levels of workload confirm what parents and teachers and students right across NSW already know. We have a chronic teacher shortage right across the state, we are thousands of teachers short in classrooms everywhere throughout NSW and now we have almost a quarter of principals saying that they’re actually considering leaving, this is on top of the fact that 70 per cent of our teachers are considering their future. The truth is that the government in NSW, the Perrottet Liberal Government has been warned time and time again over the decade to do something about the chronic teacher shortage and they have done absolutely nothing. Principals are under so much pressure, just finding enough teachers to cover their classrooms on every day, principals across the state are struggling every day to find enough teachers to fill their classrooms to take their classes in their schools, it is no wonder that so many of them are actually thinking about leaving our schools when we actually need them in our classrooms. And why do we have a teacher shortage? It is because the government has not recruited enough teachers and they haven’t done enough to keep them in front of our children in the classrooms. Teachers are struggling to pay their mortgages, pay their rents with ever increasing cost of living pressures on all key workers, all across NSW. There are constantly pressures on teachers, nurses, paramedics, all key workers that got us through the pandemic. The truth is that teachers simply cannot pay their rents, pay their mortgages, feed their families, and pay their bills and as a result, so many of them are leaving or considering to leave our classrooms when we need them in our classrooms in front of our children. As a result, we see our children suffering and our results are falling through the floor. NSW education standards, NSW education results on international testing are falling behind most other states and territories around this country, it is unacceptable and it’s because the Perrottet Liberal Government will not listen time and time again to the warnings about the chronic teacher shortage.

JOURNALIST: What are some of the issues that the principals are facing, causing them to consider leaving their careers?

CAR: Principals are under so much pressure just finding enough teachers to staff their classrooms. We know that there is a chronic teacher shortage right across the state, we’ve got more than 2,000 teacher vacancies across NSW and that has a real impact on pretty much all of our schools across NSW. Teachers are flat out just getting through the day, principals are flat out trying to get teachers to staff their classrooms. As a result, they’re under too much pressure, so many of them are considering leaving and their own teachers 70 per cent of them are actually considering their own future.

JOURNALIST: And recent actions from the Education Minister, Sarah Mitchell included things like the Teachers Advisory Group, last week changes to accreditation for highly accomplished and lead teachers over the weekend. Do you think those will have any impact on actually recruiting more teachers?

CAR: Sarah Mitchell and Dominic Perrottet have done nearly nothing when it comes to recruiting teachers that we need in our classrooms. They’re constantly announcing new talk fests, new inquiries, new committees, but at the end of the day, they’re not recruiting enough teachers, the teachers we need in our classrooms. As a result, we’re seeing things like one in five math classes are being taught by a non-maths trained teacher and our results in key areas like maths are falling behind most other states and territories around the country.

JOURNALIST: So how would you go about recruiting more teachers then?

CAR: The government needs a comprehensive program of recruiting more of our best and brightest students into teaching degrees and then once they get into the classroom, valuing them so that they stay in the classroom, taking work-load pressure off them and paying them more. It is true that teachers are not paid enough. In a state where it is very hard to make ends meet, it’s almost impossible for a teacher, a nurse, a paramedic to pay their bills, feed their families, their rents, their mortgages. Cost of living is out of control in NSW, real wages are going backwards, the government just does not pay our key workers enough.

JOURNALIST: We’ve got the budget next month, do you think there’ll be any sort of substantive cost of living relief?

CAR: The government keeps insinuating that there’s going to be some relief for key workers in the budget, if that is the case, they should have told these key workers weeks and weeks ago. They’re struggling to make ends meet, get through the week, week by week, their living pay packet to pay packet they would appreciate some relief from the NSW Government. The truth is that the government needs to be transparent with these key workers, like teachers, nurses and paramedics, what are they going to deliver in the budget, because his government’s record is pretty dire when it comes to that.

Thanks everyone.