A BILLBOARD truck stopped in Newcastle, drawing attention to statewide teacher shortages.
The truck, which the Independent Education Union (IEU) is using as a mobile billboard, travelled as far south as Queanbeyan last week and will head north to Tamworth and Armidale over the coming days. It stopped outside St Francis Xavier College at around 2pm Monday and was met by IEU members from the school.
NSW and ACT branch secretary Mark Northam, who is a former teacher at St Francis Xavier, said the tour is about getting the public on side with the union movement.
"Their sons and daughters are returning home everyday and talking to them about what it's like," Mr Northam said.
"Not being able to cover classes, splitting classes in primary schools, the school executive - principals and [assistant principals] - taking duties they shouldn't be."
In an effort to address teacher shortages, the IEU is calling for "fairer salaries", more planning time, a reduced administrative load and an increase to support staff wages to meet those of state-funded schools.
"It's not a figment. It's not a union beat-up. It's real," he said.
"Catholic employers are saying they are going to be 3000 teachers short across NSW and the ACT by the end of the decade ."
Leader of learning TAS and IEU rep at the school, Rowan Kelly, said teacher burnout and inadequate pay need to be addressed.
"People say we get all the holidays and that but there's not magical filing cabinet that you walk in at five to nine and get out the day's lessons and you can leave at 3pm," Mr Kelly said.
"Teaching is a profession that's wonderful and sets up every other profession in the world so unless the government, and in our case the Catholic Schools Office (CSO), invest in it, the students' learning and their education outcomes are going to be impacted."
Mr Northam said staff shortages need to be addressed by employers like the CSO along with the NSW Government.
"It's quite simple, what they get is what we get," Mr Northam said.
"There have been rallies right around NSW recently which involved members of both the Independent Education Union and the Teachers Federation. That really tells you what a crisis exists with the teacher shortage."
While the CSO is yet to provide comment, the government said "the majority" of public education schools have no vacancies.
"Teachers have told us that one of the biggest ways we can address workload issues is by cutting red tape, reducing their admin burden, and providing them with high-quality curriculum resources - which is exactly what we've done," a NSW Education spokesperson said.
"This year more than 4,000 new teachers have been accredited and we are on track for 7,000 teachers to join the profession this year, as in other years."
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