Alice Leung has been a teacher for 14 years, but today she swapped her classroom for the streets as teachers across New South Wales marched to state parliament to demand better working conditions.
Around 15,000 teachers followed in Ms Leung’s footsteps on Tuesday, striking against the looming teacher shortages in the state and their uncompetitive salaries, driving professionals out of the workforce.
“Teachers don't want to leave the classroom, we just don't take industrial action for the sake of it. It's a last resort because the state government isn't listening to us,” Ms Leung told SBS News.
Ms Leung says industrial action is taken as a last resort for the state government to listen to teachers' needs. Source: Supplied/Alice Leung
Why are teachers striking?
Teachers rallied on Tuesday for the first time in nearly a decade due to the overwhelming workload placed on them as classrooms grow — and teacher numbers shrink.
They’re also demanding an increase in pay that they say would be more proportionate to their work efforts and will incentivise more high school graduates to take up teaching as a profession.
Teachers donned t-shirts with the slogan 'More than Thanks', in a bid to explain they deserve more tangible recognition than verbal recognition for their efforts.
According to a 2020 NSW Department of Education briefing, teacher pay has been deteriorating since the 1980s, which makes fewer higher achieving students enrol into teaching degrees.
“Teaching is the best job in the entire world, but I think it comes to a point for many teachers where the pay is uncompetitive, and the workload is massive, tremendous,” Ms Leung said.
“There comes a point when you say, ‘how much of my own wellbeing do I have to sacrifice to do my job? How much of my family's wellbeing do I have to sacrifice to do my job properly?’ For a lot of people, they think it’s just not worth it.”
The state government has offered teachers a 2.5 per cent annual pay rise — the maximum cap government workers can receive as a raise in a year.
But the NSW Teachers’ Federation insists on a 5 per cent rise, with a further 2.5 per cent increase for experienced teachers.
Teacher shortages
Internal state documents in October stated that if the looming teacher shortage isn’t addressed immediately, NSW will run out of public school teachers in five years.
The problem runs larger with the NSW Teachers Federation warning the state will need at least 11,000 teachers by the next decade as student enrolments are predicted to soar by 25 per cent by 2040.
But the problem isn’t limited to NSW. Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia have all reported issues with teacher shortages throughout the year.
A discussion paper commissioned by the federal government this year also highlighted that the proportion of excelling high school graduates around the country to choose a teaching degree has dropped dramatically.
The impact of COVID-19
Richard Poole wears his career like a badge of honour, teaching high school English in a selective school in north-western Sydney.
But he says trying to teach his students remotely for three months during the COVID-19 outbreak in NSW was a “brain drain”.
Richard Poole says he loves his job, but the workload has become overbearing for the pay they receive. Source: Supplied/Richard Poole
“I was sobbing some nights with frustration because of the guilt and the inability to do anything for these kids. How could I possibly see how any of my students were doing when they're just a little icon in a zoom call?” he told SBS News.
With growing compliance measures that teachers are forced to adhere to, and insufficient time during the eight-hour workday to complete mandatory development courses, Mr Poole says it isn’t uncommon to work over 12 hours in a day.
“Teaching is not just some volunteer work, it's a profession, and we are highly trained professionals. We deserve a salary that matches the amount of work we do.”
And as he saw more teachers hang up their lanyards as NSW reopened due to mental exhaustion, panic set for Mr Poole.
“Classroom teachers are holding the system together by sheer willpower, and there are only so many of us. We're all going to drop off eventually if it doesn't change.”
Both Ms Leung and Mr Poole say teaching workloads were already immense before COVID-19. But during COVID-19, it became “impossible” to bear.
“The remote learning phase was the last straw for teachers… it just pushed them over the edge.”
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell criticised the union-led protests.
“In a single day, the union has caused more disruption to our public education system than we've seen due to COVID throughout the entirety of this term,” Ms Mitchell said.
Mr Poole said the state government's “outward hostility” was uncalled for.
“We're telling you, we need more time. We're telling you, we need to deal with fewer children, so we can deal with each student better. We're telling you that because we’re on the ground, we're not being selfish. We're not doing this for us. We’re doing this for them,” he said.
