VIDEO: Australia is facing a teacher shortage

DEAN BOSS, SCIENCE TEACHER: It will have a reaction with an acid and a base, and that will create water, and one other thing. Does anyone know what that other chemical will be?

ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: Not too long ago Dean Boss was a student at Elizabeth Macarthur High School, in Sydney’s west. Now, he’s on the other side of the desk. 

DEAN BOSS:  It is a salt, yes, that’s correct. 

ADAM HARVEY:  His former principal is now his boss. 

What sort of a student was he?

KYLIE HEDGER, PRINCIPAL, ELIZABETH MACARTHUR HIGH SCHOOL:  He was, he and all his friends, some of whom who he works with now, were lovely, lovely boys.

ADAM HARVEY:  Young teachers, like Dean Boss, have helped solve one of the biggest problems at Elizabeth Macarthur High: a major staff shortage. 

The problem peaked two years ago when they were 35 short of a full cohort of around 120 staff. 

KYLIE HEDGER:  It was extremely difficult, and we couldn't always guarantee we could put an adult in front of a class, and we had to do some quite extreme measures including combining classes and taking out walls.

ADAM HARVEY:   At many schools the problems continue.

MEREDITH PEACE, AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION UNION:  The widespread shortages have really hit post COVID and we're struggling to recover from that, both in terms of attracting new teachers into the profession, but just as importantly struggling to retain the teachers that we have.

ADAM HARVEY:  The Elizabeth Macarthur school is on track to have zero vacancies next year, in part because it’s been so successful at recruiting ex-students. 

Sixteen former students work at the school as support and administrative officers while they are studying teaching at university. 

KYLIE HEDGER:  The students that needed additional help really engaged with them well because they were closely their age.

ADAM HARVEY:  In an international survey published last year, 58 per cent of Australian public school principals said they need more teachers. 

The problem is spread across the states:  New South Wales is short around 962 teachers, down from 2,460 three years ago. The Victorian Education Department is currently advertising 1,711 jobs.

To get around the problem schools employ workers who are not yet qualified teachers. 

In Victoria, 1,347 people have special Permission to Teach status to fill positions where registered teachers could not be found. 

Last year, Queensland granted 1,294 Permission to Teach authorities.

CHRIS SMITH, FMR DEPUTY PRINCIPAL:  They haven't finished their qualifications yet and in my school that was the only way we were surviving. Each year we'd have one, two, three sometimes four teachers out of 30 or 40 teachers on our staffing books. 

ADAM HARVEY:  Until last year, Chris Smith was a deputy principal at a Central Queensland public school. He now works for the state’s teachers’ union. 

CHRIS SMITH:  But more and more they are people who are in their third year or their second year of studying and what they are having to do is study and teach and work at the same time. And that's hugely challenging for them. 

PROF. JO LAMPERT, MONASH UNIVERSITY:  We've stopped some gaps I think by focusing on supply. So more teachers are going into teaching, but that raises its own issues and that we have now a very young and very inexperienced early career teaching workforce. 

ADAM HARVEY:  It can be such a challenging job that around 50 per cent of younger teachers are unsure whether they’ll stay in the profession and 30 per cent plan to quit within ten years. 

They cite problems like managing difficult students, and excessive workload.

MEREDITH PEACE:  But also, our newer teachers talk about the lack of, they feel unprepared when they come into the classroom to deal particularly with the complexity and diversity of students that they have in their classrooms.

JO LAMPERT:  We're sending them into really complex kind of situations at the moment where workloads are high, morale is low, and the risk is that we will burn them out quickly and turnover will not be solved at all. So they'll stay a few years and move on then. So attrition will still be high.

ADAM HARVEY:  Dean Boss survived the early years and thrived - not everyone does.   

DEAN BOSS:  It is a very challenging career. It's a lot of hours, a lot of work, but it's also incredibly rewarding. So it's just that balance and it's not a career for everybody. 

ADAM HARVEY: Principal Kylie Hedger uses senior teachers as mentors to help the young staff.

KYLIE HEDGER:  The attrition rate for young teachers is pretty high. So if you can get them comfortable in the classroom and get their classroom management under control quickly, that gives them better efficacy in their classroom, which makes their job a lot easier and a lot more pleasant.

ADAM HARVEY:  She tries to recruit the next generation of teachers from her current crop of students. 

KYLIE HEDGER:  Live a life that makes a difference. Live a life that leaves a legacy. Teach!

ADAM HARVEY:  But it’s a big workload, and you’re not going to be billionaires, if you become teachers. 

STUDENT:  But it’s worth it. 

ADAM HARVEY:  She has one recruit locked in. Sixteen-year-old Kayla Marchant plans to come back to Elizabeth Macarthur as soon as she graduates university. She says the school helped her with her own learning difficulties and she wants to help others. 

KAYLA MARCHANT:  I have dyslexia, and I want to give people the opportunity to learn, not just in a theoretical setting. I want them to learn practically and with their hands and how they can engage fully inside the class.

ADAM HARVEY:  She doesn’t think the workload will be an issue.   

KAYLA MARCHANT:  Going home and doing extra work and I've seen all these teachers that are so passionate about it, I don't think it's going to be a problem because if I'm passionate about what I'm going to do, I'm going to do it well and I'm going to take that home with me.

ADAM HARVEY:  Fifty years on, the principal still remembers her own kindergarten teacher, Miss Ibitson. 

KYLIE HEDGER:  You can be that for a whole other generation of kids. You can be that person that they remember their whole lives. 

I don’t remember who installed my TV or built my house or any of those things but I remember Miss Ibitson because teachers make a difference. Be that in your life. That’s better than the money. Oh!