Governments may be in denial, but there's every indication of a massive teacher shortage. Geraldine Mackey reports.

"We are struggling to fill any vacancy in remote areas. We are unable to fill vacancies in the physics and mathematics area [and there are] great difficulties in filling the arts. Next year our technical studies teacher will be on leave and then will resign. This vacancy will be impossible to fill. We lose staff after two or three years.”

For the past 18 months, the Australian Secondary Principals Association has been researching the teacher shortage and its impact on state secondary schools. The quote is from one of the respondents, a principal in a remote area. It is calm and measured, but the SOS tone is unmistakable.

Warnings of a crisis in teacher numbers have been coming for some time, from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's inquiry into rural education, the 1997 Senate inquiry into the status of teachers and recently from the Australian Council of Deans of Education. The crisis has been further confirmed by two important Government reports. The first is a biennial report, investigating the characteristics of the labour market for teachers, from the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). In the second, a review commissioned by the Federal Government—Australia's Teachers: Australia's Future —a key recommendation is a call for action to stem the tide of teacher resignations, particularly in the first five years.

While it's now clear the Federal Government knows about the teacher supply crisis there is no obvious sign that it is working on a national solution.

“The Government is in denial,” says AEU federal research officer Roy Martin.

Ageing amplified

Teaching is caught up in the wider problem of the ageing workforce, and the profession stands to be hit especially hard. Forty-four per cent of Australia's 250,000 teachers are aged over 45. In 20 years, the over-65 sector of the population will be growing at three times the rate of that aged 15 to 64, the National Strategy for an Ageing Australia predicts. The number of taxpayers supporting each retiree will drop from six to three in the next 20 years, the Business Council of Australia has projected.

After the employment of teachers in large numbers in the 1970s, mid-1980s and early 1990s, demand slowed and funding at university level began to decline. Places in the system have dropped by a third since the late 1980s. Demand for primary school teaching graduates will increase 31 per cent by 2005 and there are calls to increase the number of secondary school teacher graduates by 85 per cent, according to a report commissioned by the Australian Council of Deans of Education. It concluded that there would be a shortfall of about 5,000 teachers by 2005, rising to 20,000 to 30,000 by the end of the decade.

Recent DEST (Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training) research found that Canberra has the oldest teachers, with 53 per cent aged over 45. The “youngest” teaching force is in Queensland, with 42 per cent over 45. Adding to the problem is the fact that there are disproportionately high numbers of maths and science teachers due to retire in this decade.

Exit under pressure

Retaining teachers, both young and old, is a major problem. In real value, teachers' wages have been declining for years and they are now paid less than professions with similar training requirements. The struggles for better pay and conditions have made teachers feel undervalued by the Government and community.

Meanwhile, there has been a marked increase in teachers' responsibilities and duty of care. Many experienced teachers have left the job early due to the complexity and stresses. Teachers cite increased workload, administration duties and class sizes, and a lack of career paths for adding to the pressure.

Some teachers would like to work part-time in their 50s and perhaps longer, but their superannuation entitlements may discourage this. The Committee for the Review of Teaching and Teacher Education, in October, in its final report, said superannuation entitlements were a disincentive for teachers continuing to work beyond minimum retirement age. It suggested taking a number of relatively low-cost measures to retain teachers, and recommended that superannuation be arranged to enable teachers to remain longer at work if they wished “without financial detriment”.

Creative stop-gaps

As the teaching system stretches due to the shortages, schools have to be as creative as they can to cope. Some host undergraduate teachers in the hope they will stay on as graduates. Kyabram Secondary College in Victoria, for example, is hosting about 30 a year. While this has had positive outcomes for the school, the young teachers need support and coaching, adding to the workloads of other staff.

Kyabram also relies on its pool of retired teachers, who, in loyalty to the school and community, often do the job as a favour. Retired teachers tend to be excellent, but they have other commitments and can't be on call all the time. They are a stop-gap measure.

People could be enticed into teaching, especially in rural areas, through scholarships, pay arrangements for specialists and guarantees of employment to help with accumulated HECS debt, DEST said in two recent broad-ranging reviews. Attracting older graduates into teaching is a major consideration, and fast-track courses should be offered, with higher commencement salaries to recognise prior skills and experience.

In a recent joint report, the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Unions set out guidelines for encouraging older workers to keep participating, and for arranging family-friendly workplaces for older workers and part-time employment for those who want it.

Many schools view part-time workers with caution. In large high schools, organising a timetable around them can be a nightmare. There is also the possibility of communication breakdowns over excursions, staff meetings, student welfare programs, training and other matters.

But part-time workers will be needed. Kyabram principal Lindsay Cooper expresses the frustrations of many who are juggling part-timers in a similar situation: “Employing part-timers is essential in addressing the teacher shortage. Many of them are our very best teachers. If we can't find ways to marry their family and teaching ambitions, we'll lose them to other modes of employment.”

Principals and the teachers involved set the guidelines for job-sharing and part-time teaching. Where these practices can be organised within school routine, they can work on many fronts. They help stem the flow of experienced teachers not wanting to do relief work, and students tend to find that their teachers are happier because they are not tired and stressed from juggling work and family commitments.

Struggling for balance

The AEU is working towards enterprise agreements that balance work and life, especially for those with young families, and older workers. In the current round of negotiations in Western Australia, the union is looking at changes that provide for the ageing workforce, says AEU federal president Pat Byrne.

The AEU is pushing for superannuation regulations that allow gradual transition into retirement without financial disadvantage and with more flexible part-time options, combining teaching and mentoring roles. Another AEU concern is the provision of carer's leave in its own right. Teachers with elderly parents commonly need such leave, the obligation falling most heavily on women. The Government, in reluctantly recognising the problem, has set up a taskforce to look at how to approach it at the various government levels.

Whether education ministers are prepared to acknowledge it or not, a crisis is clearly looming for Australia's teachers and their students. Schools and states can implement all the piecemeal, stop-gap measures they can think of, but a genuine solution can come only from creative solutions pursued with commitment at a national level. Lack of action will only make even more teachers leave the system and discourage potential teachers by further devaluing the profession.

GERALDINE MACKEY is a teacher and writer.