NSW school staffing crisis hits Villawood East Public School

Teachers Federation members at Villawood East Public School have walked off the job over the negative impact the state-wide teacher shortage is having on their school.

NSW Teachers Federation Deputy President Henry Rajendra said staff walked out over the consistent lack of casual teachers to support student needs and the poor provision of support from the Education Department for students with complex behaviours.

“Schools in Sydney are being hit by the state-wide staffing crisis and Villawood East Public school has a range of students with specific support needs which are not being met by the NSW Government,” Mr Rajendra said.

“The staff are concerned that the school is being left to manage increasing incidents of complex student behaviour and are not being given adequate specialists staffing support.”

“This has become a work health and safety issue for teachers and a case of students being left without the extra help they need to learn on the same basis as their peers.”

“Public schools need additional support to manage some students and while intervention programs exist, there are massive delays getting access to funding.”

“This is simply not good enough and our students, teachers and parents deserve better.”

“Our members are calling for simplified processes for gaining additional specialist staff available to help schools cope.”

“Teachers say there must be an increase to the school counsellor allocation for Villawood East Public School based on the level of student need.”

Mr Rajendra said the Gallop Inquiry into the work of teachers found earlier this year that uncompetitive salaries for teachers and unsustainable workloads are leading to teacher shortages.”

“The workloads of teachers have increased every year, but their salaries have fallen every year compared to other professions.”

“You can’t fix the shortages without fixing the wages and workload problem.”

“If we don’t pay teachers what they are worth, we won’t get the teachers we need.”