A $20k sign-on bonus hasn't been enough to get teachers to Kaylee's school. She's worried she may fail Year 12 (2024)

Year 12 student Kaylee Perks, 17, is worried she is doomed to fail the most important year of her education.

"We've got assessments and we've barely got any idea what we're doing," she said.

"Some of the distance teaching isn't really that good, so we're really struggling."

Kaylee is a student at Merriwa Central School, a Kindergarten to Year 12 public school in the NSW Upper Hunter, which is in the grip of a long-standing teacher crisis.

Six out of 25.7 full-time equivalent positions are vacant, and some have been vacant for more than a year.

Recent recruitment to fill the roles, which come with a $20,000 sign-on bonus and $8,000 in relocation support, only attracted two applicants.

Out of Kaylee's five subjects, only two have regular face-to-face teachers, with the rest delivered remotely.

"We've got an office lady coming and sitting in our PE and CAFS (Community and Family Studies) calls," she said.

"It's really not ideal, like it's stress on the whole entire school."

Statewide problem

Merriwa isn't the only town in NSW feeling the impact of a teacher shortage.

While there have been improvements in the job vacancy rate in the state,about1,000 vacancies in public schools remain across regional NSW, according to May 2024 data supplied by the NSW Education Department.

Education Minister Prue Car declined an interview about Merriwa Central School and rural teaching vacancies in general.

In a statement to the ABC, Ms Car said an increase in the starting salary for teachers from $75,791 to $85,000 in Octoberhad helped decrease the vacancy rate, but recognised "there is more to do".

In an announcement to media today, the government said the initiative that provides the $20,000 bonus and relocation had been expanded to another 26 schools in the state.

The new schools include Merriwa Central, but it has been a part of that program since March and has not been able to fill longstanding vacancies.

The announcement from Ms Car's office stated the addition meant 111 schools "from Bega to Bowral and Cobar to Casino" were now a part of the program.

"The program’s success is evident with 615 teachers placed in permanent positions in the past 12 months," it read.

An Education Department spokesperson said the school was also part of several other initiatives that aimed to attract student teachers, current teachers and former teachers to regional schools.

Despite those measures, there are still subjects that can not be provided to all students due to a lack of staff, including agriculture —which is a leading employer in the Upper Hunter.

Call for more help

Merriwa P&C Association members Olivia Gear and Michelle Hicks said the lack of teachers was not good enough.

"It's worse than the COVID times," Ms Gear said.

"[Student] attendance has dwindled down ... they feel like there's no point coming to school."

Ms Hicks said that was due to a lack of structure.

"If they don't have the proper teaching in their classes or [in supervision], they're distracted more," she said.

NSW Teachers Federation member Harley Hannon has been a teacher at the school since 2019.

"Because we have low staff numbers, we can't engage with things like sporting activities or other kinds of extracurricular excursions," he said.

"We're really stuck and we can't do it by ourselves at this point.

"We've tried for long enough, and now's the time for someone else to step in and give us a hand."

Lack of housing an issue

Access to affordable housing has been highlighted as a key problem in the quest to recruit.

"We've been told by teachers who accepted positions, 'Oh, we can't come and teach here because there's nowhere to live'," Mr Hannon said.

Just seven properties are currently listed for rent in Merriwa on realestate.com, with an average rent of more than $430 a week.

Six of the listed properties are homes with at least three bedrooms, while a two-bedroom unit is also available.

The Education Department said it planned to build several homesin Merriwa for teachers, in a bid to curb the accommodation problem.

University of New South Wales Gonski Institute director Kim Beswick said the government needed to think beyond monetary incentives to sell working in the bush to teachers.

"We've been trying the same sorts of things for a very long time," she said.

"I think we really need to change the narrative about rural and regional education and the schools there."

Professor Beswick suggested encouraging teachers at metropolitan schools to work in a rural school for a set amount of time to broaden their experiences, and promote the idea to them.

"Perhaps even taster contracts in rural places, if [teachers have] never been to such a place and they just want to try it out, maybe let them go for a year, maybe even a term just to see how they go," she said.

Kaylee said she was interested in becoming a teacher herself, but she was worried she would not get good enough results.

"[University] is going to be hard to get into considering half my HSC is online at the moment," she said.

"It's not a proper education ... we're not getting the brain development we need."

Editors Note: A previous version of this story reported there were 18 secondary teaching roles at MCS, as per information provided by the Teachers' Federation. There are 25.7 full-time roles at MCS in both campuses at the school, with six roles vacant.