South-west schools struggle to fill staff shortages

It's been especially challenging over the past month as influenza, RSV and winter sicknesses sweep across the south-west.

Teachers are falling ill, presenting challenges for schools who continue to face staff shortages and trouble sourcing casual relief teachers following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Warrnambool-based agency Professional Teaching Solutions owner Sue Abbott said the situation was "dire".

"We have schools at Cobden, Terang, Lake Bolac and Hawkesdale and we can't get anyone to travel because there's so many jobs here already," she said. "They're really struggling."

She said south-west school principals she'd spoken to were combining classes and "generally tearing their hair out".

"We've been impacted since COVID," Ms Abbott said. "We just don't have enough teachers and the schools are struggling. We are booked out every single day.

"We used to place 100 teacher days a week and we're down to 30 because that's all the teachers we've got."

Ms Abbott said there seemed to be a lot of sickness going around which was adding to the ongoing staffing challenges.

"It's dire," she said. "I don't know what they're going to do. It's not just here. We get emails from schools all over Victoria looking for CRTs because they don't realise we're in south-west Victoria.

"It's just really dire. I don't know what they're going to do."

Ms Abbott said she couldn't understand why there were chronic staff shortages across a range industries post pandemic, including teaching, and didn't know where everyone had gone.

"I think a lot of people must have retired or left teaching or it's just too hard,"she said. "There's a lot of expectations theses days on teachers."

Hawkesdale P12 College principal Colan Distel said despite it being a challenge during the pandemic finding relieving staff had always been "tricky".

"We're getting by is probably the best way of describing it," Mr Distel said.

He said sourcing staff was an ongoing challenge for the college.

"We've got a few really reliable CRTs who we draw on all the time but it's always a bit of a challenge."

Mr Distel said some of its CRTs lived in the Hawkesdale area which reduced their travel time and made it easier to fill the gaps.

"It's convenient for them as well as us."

Terang's St Thomas' Primary School principal Matt Uzkuraitis said finding relief staff was an issue for rural schools.

He said nearby school principals within the Catholic schools network at Camperdown and Mortlake also found it difficult.

Mr Uzkuraitis said the school had a core group of CRTs to draw on, but if those teachers were unavailable it was left without options.

"If a teacher calls in sick, particularly if they ring in in the morning, it's very, very hard to get someone," Mr Uzkuraitis said.

"We've been stuck a few times. We've occasionally joined classes together. It's definitely had an impact."

Mr Uzkuraitis said while he'd stepped in to teach classes during the last term and-a-half when CRTs were unavailable, finding staff was worse last year when those who tested positive for COVID-19 were forced to isolate for seven days.

"If you did get COVID you were out for seven days and therefore that was at least five days you were trying to chase someone, so it was a lot harder back then," he said.

"It's still a little bit of an issue, particularly for rural schools.

"It's just an ongoing issue that we do find ways around but it can be a little bit stressful at times."

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