The Victorian Government has defended its teacher recruitment strategy after an attack by the Opposition claimed secondary schools in the Goulburn region received less than one application per job advertised.
Shadow Education Minister Jess Wilson claimed data provided by the Victorian Department of Education had shown that secondary schools in the Goulburn region, which includes Greater Shepparton, Mitchell, Moira, Murrindindi and Strathbogie local government areas, received, on average, 0.9 applications per job and Goulburn primary schools an average of 2.1 applications per job.
Ms Wilson said statewide, secondary schools averaged 2.8 applications per vacancy and primary schools 5.3 applications.
She said there were more than 2000 advertised teacher job vacancies across Victorian government schools.
“These figures confirm the depth of Labor’s teacher shortage crisis and highlight the disproportionate impact it is having on regional Victoria,” Ms Wilson said.
“Labor’s teacher shortage crisis has been years in the making and is denying students the high-quality education they deserve.”
Ms Wilson said with nine out of 10 government school principals declaring teacher shortages, the figures indicated there wasn’t any sign of relief arriving in 2024.
“The final school bells for 2023 will be rung 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,” she said.
“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 the 2022 Teacher Supply and Demand Report to inform decision-making and stop wasting taxpayer dollars on programs that are not solving the problem.”
A Department of Education spokesperson has defended recruitment efforts, saying Victoria’s strategy has returned better results than the rest of the country.
“The number of teachers in Victoria has grown at twice the national average, and that’s no accident — we’re delivering a range of initiatives that have grown our workforce by 8000 extra registered teachers between 2020 and 2023,” the spokesperson said.
The department said it would continue to use the strategies it said had seen net growth in the number of teaching staff of 10.9 per cent from 2018 to 2022.
“We are continuing to invest in teachers in every corner of the state by offering free teaching degrees, targeted financial incentives and early career supports — because we know when teachers are well supported, students will be too,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re also providing unprecedented investment in the future of rural education — with programs to ensure rural and regional students have access to great curriculum opportunities and high-quality teachers, and regional schools have the time and resources they need to focus on giving students the best possible education.”
The government said announcements in September of $93.2 million for secondary teaching scholarships, $13.9 million to trial employment-based teaching degrees, $27 million to continue financial incentives to attract teachers to rural and regional government schools and $95.7 million to provide mentoring and professional support for early-career teachers were also helping to attract and retain teachers.