The depth of Labor’s teacher shortage crisis has been revealed as new figures confirm some areas of Victoria received fewer than one application for every teacher job vacancy across 2022.
New teacherapplication rate data provided by the Victorian Department of Education has revealed the communities worst affected by continued teacher shortages across 2022, including:
- Outer Gippsland Secondary Schools, an average of 0.7 applications per job.
- Goulburn Secondary Schools, an average of 0.9 applications per job.
- Mallee Secondary Schools, an average of 1 application per job.
- Outer Gippsland Primary Schools, an average of 1.9 applications per job.
- Goulburn Primary Schools, an average of 2.1 applications per job.
- Western Melbourne Primary Schools, an average of 3.5 applications per job.
In total across 2022, Victorian Government Secondary Schools averaged 2.8 applications per vacancy and Victorian Government Primary Schools averaged 5.3 applications per vacancy.
It comes as there are currently more than 2,000 advertised teacher job vacancies across Victoria.
With nine in 10 government school principals declaring teacher shortages, is it any surprise that the Government continues to bury the2022 Teacher Supply and Demand Report.
Shadow Minister for Education, Jess Wilson, said: “These figures confirm the depth of Labor’s teacher shortage crisis and highlight the disproportionate impact it is having on regional Victoria.
“Labor’s teacher shortage crisis has been years in the making and is denying students of the high-quality education they deserve.
“The final school bells for 2023 will be ring over the next two weeks, yet we go into the New Year not knowing how many students in Victoria will not have a classroom teacher in 2024.
“With Victorian student outcomes across maths, reading and science at record lows, the government cannot continue to tinker at the edges of its teacher shortage crisis, failing to make teaching an attractive profession.
“The Labor Government needs to stop hiding the true state of our teacher shortage crisis, release the2022 Teacher Supply and Demand Report to inform decision making and stop wasting taxpayer dollars on programs that are not solving the problem.”
