‘They just sit there’:The schools where hundreds of lessons are cancelled

Students at some NSW schools have missed out on planned lessons hundreds of times this year because there was no-one to step in when their teachers were away.

At Murrumbidgee Regional High School,there have been 475 instances of minimal supervision - when students are supervised but not actively taught due to a teacher’s absence - in 2021 and classes without teachers were merged with others 143 times,data from the NSW Department of Education shows.

Sydney’s Concord High had 169 classes either merged or put under minimal supervision before it switched to remote learning,while at Narrabri High there have been 73 cases of minimal supervision and 195 class mergers. At Canobolas Rural Technology High in Orange,senior classes had minimal supervision 300 times and year 7 to 10 classes were merged 200 times.

Students at some NSW schools have missed out on planned classes hundreds of times

Students at some NSW schools have missed out on planned classes hundreds of timesiStock

At Mary Brooksbank School,a school for students with moderate to severe disabilities at Rosemeadow near Campbelltown,students were merged into other classes 78 times in the first half of the year due to a lack of relief teachers.

Alice Leung,the president of the Inner West Teachers Association,said classes under minimal supervision were watched over but not actively taught. They might sit in the library,or outside,or at the back of another teacher’s classroom.

“When there’s minimum supervision or combined classes,the teacher can only do so much,” she said. “You’ve planned your lesson for 30. You’ve got 60 students with you. Your own class is impacted because you can’t run that activity.

“I’m a science teacher;I can’t supervise a practical class and supervise others as well.”

Schools are struggling to find casual teachers to replace absent ones. The problem is worst in regional areas but biting in cities as well. Ms Leung has been teaching for 13 years and this is the worst shortage she has seen. “I’ve heard more experienced teachers say that maybe back in the 1980s they used to have a lot of classes out on the oval supervised by the deputy,” she said.

Denis Harvey,a parent with three children at Narrabri High,said merged classes and minimal supervision have become regular occurrences. “The teacher is away,the principal tries the casual pool,but we have no casual pool,” he said. “They then need to make the decision about what classes miss out,where and when.

“And then whatever class misses out,they get put into a room,there might be someone checking on them regularly,there might be an aide or a non teacher monitoring them,and they just sit there. They might be given worksheets but more often they’re not.”

Shauna Burnett,a NSW Teachers Federation Workplace Committee member at Mary Brooksbank,said students there found changes to their routine extremely stressful.

“We do our best to place them with staff who know them[when classes are combined],” she said. “Even just having one different student in the class can upset the balance of the whole class.” Even when they can find casual teachers,most do not have special education experience.

The president of the NSW Teachers Federation,Angelo Gavrielatos,said shortages should be addressed “as a matter of urgency”. The teachers’ industrial award expires at the end of the year,and the federation is campaigning for higher wages and better conditions.

“This is an example of the very real impact teacher shortages are having on students and teachers,” he said. “If we don’t pay teachers what they are worth,we won’t get the teachers we need.”

A spokeswoman for the NSW Department of Education said minimal supervision did not mean students missed out on a lesson. “A major challenge in regional areas is requiring a casual teacher last minute,this accounts for a large bulk of increased minimal supervision classes,” she said.

“We are trialling a casual supplementation program which looks at creating hub schools for casuals that can rapidly deploy them to schools who need a casual on short notice. A significant proportion of merged classes involve small senior classes of year 11 and 12 students.”

The spokeswoman said merged and minimal supervision classes were not recorded centrally and a statewide average was not available. “Anecdotal advice suggests the examples quoted are higher than typical,” she said.

The NSW government has admitted there is a teacher shortage,particularly in regional areas and at high school level in disciplines such as maths. Fewer people are enrolling in education degrees,older teachers are retiring,and student numbers are growing.

A $330 million tutoring program using casual teachers to help students catch up after last year’s lockdown reduced the pool of relief teachers further before schools switched to remote learning in July. A similar tutoring package is expected to follow this year’s lockdown.

Consultancy Ernst&Young has been commissioned to develop a rapid teacher supply strategy and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is working on a longer-term teacher supply strategy.

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Jordan Baker is Chief Reporter of The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously Education Editor.

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