Education department staff being “conscripted” to fill Covid-related vacancies at New South Wales schools have said they are being sent into teaching environments without adequate training, and were just plugging holes in a broader “casual crisis”.
One employee, who has never worked with or been specifically trained to care for special needs students, claimed they were sent to teach a class of students with disabilities.
“I was just completely out of my depth,” the departmental staff member told Guardian Australia.
That same staffer was also one of several who raised concerns with the department that they had been sent to schools that did not have a valid Covid-related vacancy.
A Department of Education spokesperson said they had “received a small amount of feedback about a placement not being appropriate”.
“These claims have been found to be unsubstantiated,” the spokesperson said.
The department announced internally in January that it would call on department staff with valid teaching credentials in term one, as high Omicron case numbers and strict close contact rules exacerbated preexisting teacher shortages.
More than 750 departmental staff with current teaching qualifications were signed up for the scheme, which has been extended for another term.
But with the department declining to nominate an end date, staff are concerned they will end up covering flu and other sickness absences in the coming months.
Flu cases have surged, with 1,024 cases reported last week, and 478 cases the week before, according to the NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant.
Almost 1,100 teacher vacancies were filled by department staff, according to an email sent by the department deputy secretary, Murat Dizdar, earlier this month.
“I trust you enjoyed getting back on the tools as much as I did,” the senior official who backfilled at least one day of classes said.
Dizdar thanked staff who participated in the mandatory program, noting they had covered “thousands of hours of face-to-face learning that would not have been possible” otherwise.
But some who took part in weeks of backfilling said they were often doing little more than supervising the students, raising concerns about further hits to education continuity after two years of Covid interruptions.
“It’s essentially babysitting – you are just plugging a hole,” one departmental staffer said.
“Quality teaching is where you get to know the children, their needs, you respond to them … but none of that is possible when you’re going to a different school every day.
“We’re taking away school support services so we can plug the casual crisis.”
Other concerns raised by participating staff in communications seen by Guardian Australia included a former early education teacher sent to work at a high school.
Some staff claimed they had been working a dual load, clocking full-time teaching and departmental hours every week, and said they were considering leaving the sector over the program.
Other staff queried why they were being sent to schools so far away, with one claiming they travelled an extra three hours a day to cover a country class and another noting they were often sent further than the 25km radius limit for metro staff.
Staff reported that some of the practices that had been challenging in term one have been improved since the start of term two.
The department of education spokesperson denied claims “non-school based teachers” (NSBT) had been placed at schools for reasons other than to support Covid-19 staff absences and said every request for backfilling was validated by staff within the department.
“The department’s current priority is the continuity of face-to-face learning,” the spokesperson said.
“Managers support staff in managing the current work to accommodate temporary placements of NSBTs in schools.”
A decision for the continuation of the scheme past the end of term two has not yet been made.
The NSW Teachers Federation president, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the scheme to use department staff was an insufficient Band-Aid that needed to be replaced with structural change to increase teacher supply.
“It’s hardly even a Band-Aid,” he said. “It continues to expose pressure points and stress across the system.
“What I’m concerned about is a piecemeal approach that doesn’t even address the substantial issues that we were confronting.”
The opposition education spokesperson, Prue Carr, said the scheme was risky, labelling it a “sign of just how serious” the teacher shortage was.
“We can’t have a situation where former teachers are put back into classrooms without proper support, especially in schools which cater for students with complex needs,” Carr said.
“A comprehensive recruitment effort is needed to train and hire new teachers.”
