South-west school principals concerned about teacher shortages

Peter Lee, principal of Warrnambool Primary School which has a number of teacher vacancies, said he had advertised jobs earlier than usual in a bid to secure suitable candidates.

"There are a lot of vacancies across Victoria - a lot more than we would usually see."

He said Recruitment Online, where vacancies for government schools were advertised, had more than 1300 vacancies.

"Normally at this time of year there would be a couple of hundred - if that," Mr Lee said.

"We have a number of vacancies - hopefully we we get suitable applicants, we just don't know."

Mr Lee said he was aware there were a number of teachers who had left the industry.

In addition he believes the number of teaching graduates has decreased in recent years.

Mr Lee said he hoped people would decide to pursue teaching as a career in the coming years.

"It's a really rewarding job," he said.

Mr Lee's comments come after a survey conducted by the Australian Education Union revealed nine out of 10 Victorian school principals were concerned about staff shortages in 2023.

The survey also revealed more than 80 per cent of all principals surveyed said it had become 'much harder' to fill staffing vacancies across all areas of the curriculum and school in the past year.

AEU Victoria president Meredith Peace said results of the survey revealed the severity of the teacher shortage in Victoria.

"The Andrews government must act boldly and immediately to address the shortage to avoid a disaster," Ms Peace said.

"The state government's obligation to ensure all children can access high-quality public education must be matched by investment in the profession.

"Principals worrying about not having enough teachers and staff to fill classroom vacancies by next year shows just how acute the teacher shortage crisis is a reality."

Ms Peace said the state government needed to consider initiatives to attract and retain teachers including cost of living support, students undertaking initial teacher education and secure ongoing employment in rural, regional and hard-to-staff schools and further workload reductions.

King's College principal Allister Rouse said while he didn't have any teacher vacancies, he was concerned about the growing issue.

"At this stage, we have filled - or will fill - all our teaching positions for next year," Mr Rouse said.

He said it was hard to find substitute teachers, mostly because they usually found ongoing employment.

"I am concerned when I hear figures like there will be a shortage of 41,000 teachers in Victoria in the next two years," Mr Rouse said.

"The education system needs to find ways to reward and retain excellent teachers in the system."

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