Melbourne-based teachers are being offered $700 a day to work casual shifts in country Victoria as regional schools grapple with a “dire” staff shortage that one veteran principal says is as bad as he has seen education
The Department of Education is subsidising the scheme to tackle staff shortages driven by illness and structural issues.Melbourne-based teachers are being offered $700 a day to work casual shifts in country Victoria as regional schools grapple with a “dire” staff shortage that one veteran principal says is as bad as he has seen.
Casual relief teachers ordinarily earn a maximum daily rate of about $400 in Victorian government schools. “To address this, the Department of Education has brought in a new financial incentive to help teachers from metro Melbourne to support schools in regional Victoria. The financial incentive will cover the costs incurred to travel plus some extra spending money.”Victorian Principals Association chief executive Andrew Dalgleish said there was a shortage of teaching staff in regional Victoria and in Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs, and a need to attract more students into teaching careers.
“We are getting no applicants for positions we are advertising. English, humanities, usually we’d get several applicants, and we have got none,” he said. Darren Egberts, principal of Sacred Heart College in Kyneton and president of the Principals Association of Victorian Catholic Secondary Schools, said the teacher shortage in regional schools was “dire” and “one of the more serious issues I have seen in my time”.He predicted that if it continues in term three more schools may resort to combining classes or directing some students to learn from home.
Melbourne-based teachers who are prepared to make a longer-term move to a regional government school can receive initial payments of up to $50,000.
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