Shoalhaven teachers have banded together to demand the government address "worsening" teacher shortages being felt right across the state, including locally.
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The president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Angelo Gavrielatos, met with teachers and delegates at the Nowra School of Arts on Tuesday as part of a broader union movement.
The NSW Teachers Federation recently announced it would defer any industrial action for one month, giving Premier Dominic Perrottet an opportunity to engage in negotiations with the union.
"We took an historic step a couple of weeks ago and suspended industrial action this term," said Mr Gavrielatos.
"We told the premier that he has the opportunity to sit down with us to find a solution to the shortage and the underlying causes. But time is running out."
Mr Gavrielatos said it was disappointing "nothing has changed" to address teachers' concerns, following on from last year's statewide protests.
"What has changed is that the government's denial has gotten deeper," he said.
"This is impacting kids in their educational wellbeing. But it's also impacting teachers because of the added workload and stress associated with the shortage."
Shoalhaven Labor councillor and teacher at Vincentia High School John Kotlash said he has witnessed schools across the Shoalhaven not being able to fill positions.
He added that classes are being split, merged or minimally supervised due to shortages.
"We are seeing it on the ground in our school, we have trouble attracting casual teachers to beautiful Jervis Bay," said Mr Kotlash.
"Not because there's a problem with the place ... the issue we have is that there are not enough casual teachers in NSW. And housing in our area is so expensive ... that we cannot get enough teachers to move down here.
"We have those same problems with split classes with teachers working overload. That's teachers giving up their preparation time to do extra work to make sure the classes remain covered."
Mr Gavrielatos said teacher salaries need to be increased to attract more to the profession.
"The shortage is upon us already. But the shortage will only get worse," he said.
"We've got a massive reduction in the number of people wanting to become teachers.
"They are our starting salaries are competitive, but that's where it ends. By the time experienced teachers hit the ceiling of salaries seven or eight years afterwards, their salaries continue to decline relative to other professions."
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Grace Crivellaro
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
