As the teacher shortage bites harder in the classroom, the call for practical solutions is increasing. Denise Knight reports.

Naomi's first year as a teacher has been "pretty tough". In July, a staff shortage at her Melbourne high school meant she needed to take on an extra subject, studies of society and environment (SOSE). The problem was, she wasn't trained to teach it.

"It's not the bulk of my teaching load, but it's the most stressful subject. I'm finding myself wallowing actually," she says. "It threw me back into the chaos of first term where I was just trying to keep my head above water."

She says that, while her school has been very helpful, beginning teachers in particular need more support.

"In terms of workload, staff shortages are only making things worse. Sometimes I think we are being taken for granted—that because we really want the job, we'll take on things we're not trained for."

Naomi has decided not to take up the option of applying for a job at her school next year. Instead, she'll head overseas in July to undertake further study at university—"Which may end up leading me to a different career. I don't know at this stage."

Despite the pressures, Naomi still believes teaching is a very rewarding profession—a view she says is shared by many of her first-year teaching friends. "We are in it because we love the contact with kids and to feel we are contributing to their development."

Research mounting

Anecdotal reports like Naomi's are increasingly common and further evidence of a system under stress, says the AEU.

New studies by the AEU and other peak education bodies all tell a similar story: the chronic national teacher shortage is hitting hard at schools across the country, and worsening. With more than half of Australia's high school teachers due to reach retirement age within seven years, schools are bracing for a major crisis.

Preliminary results from the AEU's federal State of Our Schools survey reveal that 67 per cent of secondary schools have teachers teaching outside their area of qualification, says AEU federal research officer Roy Martin.

"Not surprisingly, maths provides the biggest headache for schools to cover," he says. "It was a problem in 31 per cent of schools."

Other subjects in double figures include technology/ICT (25 per cent), physical education (17), SOSE (16), science (15), languages other than English (14), English (14) and computing and computer science (12).

The survey finds that 77 per cent of secondary schools experienced teacher supply problems in the last year. The major reasons were lack of applicants for contract and fixed-term positions as well as for casual and relief teaching.

"For the majority of secondary schools [58 per cent], the teacher supply problem was worse than the previous year," says Martin. "If we add primary schools into the equation, the result is not much better [54 per cent]."

Results from the Australian Secondary Principals' Association's most recent survey are also alarming, with sharp rises in the number of classes being delivered by teachers not trained in the subject. There was a significant jump, for example, in the number of schools reporting more than 20 per cent of their English classes were being taught by teachers without subject expertise.

The results also confirm that shortages are no longer confined to rural schools and have spread to the city, especially in disadvantaged areas.

Australia is not alone in having a teacher shortage. This year an OECD report, Teachers Matter: Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers, found a shortage of teachers in subjects such as maths, science and languages in many English-speaking countries.

Looking ahead, the reports says, large amounts of experience and skill will need to be replaced as teachers in their 50s retire in the next decade. It urges governments to work with social partners to develop and implement a comprehensive approach to policy.

Training shortfall

In its submission to the current House of Representatives Inquiry into Teacher Education, the AEU estimates that 30,000–40,000 qualified entrant teachers will be required over the next five years to maintain staffing levels.

Yet despite all these projections and warnings, there continues to be a shortfall of university teaching places, says the Australian Council of Deans of Education. The council's president, Professor Terry Lovat, estimates that about 40 per cent of applicants for teaching courses who meet the requirements miss out on a place.

"We are calling for a significant increase in the number of places available," says Lovat. "As we've indicated in our submission to the Teacher Education Inquiry, there's no use talking about there being a crisis of supply if in fact we don't have enough places in the system. We're still about 20 per cent short of the number of places in the late 1980s, so we are suggesting that around 10,000 extra places nationally are needed to capture the market."

But Lovat acknowledges that the solution to the shortage is more complex than just increasing supply. "There's a catch-22 here because teaching courses are attracting more academically capable candidates and the programs are increasingly being recognised as a great training device," he says. "The result is that more and more of our graduates are being snapped up for other careers, and many don't even start teaching.

"We have a regime that has less capacity than it should to hang onto the highly prized graduates we've produced."

The council's submission also calls for an overhaul of funding, with more resources for teacher education. "In the early days of 'relative funding'," says Lovat, "for some reason the decision was made that teacher education didn't need the same level of funding as nursing, for instance, which astounds me."

The federal inquiry is due to report next year.

Five-year itch

Latest state and territory research into the issues for new teachers presents major challenges for teacher retention.

"Schools are losing a significant number of teachers in their first five years, and the situation is getting worse," says AEU Victorian branch president Mary Bluett.

The branch has just completed its second major survey of new teachers. "I'm alarmed by the finding that more than 20 per cent of our new teachers say they are being asked to teach, at least in part, out of subject."

While there has been some positive feedback from mentoring and induction programs introduced in Victoria, there is clearly a need for a nationally coordinated approach, with more resources to support teachers in the first few years, says Bluett.

"We have to be realistic about the changing attitudes this generation has to careers and accept that people will move out of the profession, and provide incentives for them to return at a later time. But, judging from the research, unless we tackle issues such as workload and structural problems—salaries, for a start—we won't get very far."

There is talk about trying to have transition to retirement and people working part-time, says NSW Teachers Federation president Maree O'Halloran. "It may be a useful buffer in the short term but the fundamental question is how do we best provide beginning teachers with the support they need to remain in the profession."

She says forcing young teachers to teach out of subject is clearly not the way to go, and is "one way the government hides the teacher shortage".

"There's a very small mentor program here in NSW, with about 50 designated positions. But we have about 2,200 schools across the state. Clearly, the government has to find more effective ways to retain teachers."

In the Northern Territory, the national shortage is magnified because of the difficulty in getting teachers to go to remote places. "Getting them there is one thing–getting them to stay longer than 10 weeks is another," says AEU NT branch president Nadine Williams.

"We strongly believe that graduates straight out of university should not go to remote communities until they have had some immersion in the NT, because we lose so many of them."

In the Alice Springs region, the union's 2004 figures show that only 16 per cent of first-round recruits were still there at the end of the year. "One of the main issues we'll be addressing in the last round of beginning teacher forums this year," says Williams, "is 'What will make you stay longer than a year?'"

The AEU NT branch is pushing the government to address issues of suitable housing for teachers, which is often a barrier to a proper round of recruitment, she says. "We had a recent case of a teacher from Queensland, with specialist training in indigenous education and ESL, who was offered a position at the Bachelor Area School. The accommodation she was promised as part of her 10-week contract was not provided and she ended up in a bunkhouse with no air-conditioning. She didn't extend her contract and the primary school position is unfilled."

Denise Knight is a freelance writer