O’Keeffe says more can be done to stop teacher shortages

By Georgia Tacey

May 1, 2023

Calling for action: State Member for Shepparton Kim O’Keeffe.

State Member for Shepparton Kim O’Keeffe says Victoria’s chronic teacher shortages are no surprise.

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Ms O’Keeffe said local teachers, staff and school communities were facing ongoing challenges in trying to offset the shortfall of teachers.

Ms O’Keeffe said of the 430 teachers and principals across the state that had recently been surveyed, 79 per cent said the additional workloads caused by staff shortages were unsustainable.

“More than 73 per cent indicated these shortages are leading to burnout, and 63 per cent believe increased workloads are likely to cause colleagues to leave their profession early,” she said.

“The shortages have become so bad, more than half of all public schools in Victoria have classroom teacher vacancies — and that means our children’s education is being disadvantaged and they are being left behind because of these chronic shortages.”

Ms O’Keeffe said the stressful shortages in Shepparton and across Victoria were having an alarming impact on principals, teachers and staff, who were all facing unmanageable workloads and experiencing extreme pressure and burnout. She said in extreme cases, many teachers and staff may resign from their employment or take leave to escape burnout.

“Now is the time we need to see the state government make such investments to deal with and combat these chronic teacher shortages across the state,” she said.

“These results and figures that have been recently published show the Andrews Government hasn’t tackled these shortages adequately and with the government failing to get a pass mark running the education system, we are only risking losing more teachers.”