Stressed teachers at a New South Wales town where schools are struggling to recruit staff are seeking trauma counselling, their union says.
The Queanbeyan teachers are now considering further industrial action if the government fails to fix the "crippling" shortage.
Staff at the two public high schools in the town, which is near Canberra, walked off the job this week after officials ordered them to keep teaching full-time, face-to-face classes.
Queanbeyan High School's principal and teachers had earlier devised a mixed timetable of at-home and in-class lessons to try to cope with a lack of staff — but the NSW Education Department ruled out the change.
Yesterday, more than 35 staff at Karabar High School left their work to protest against the government's lack of support for them.
They followed 30 teachers at Queanbeyan High who, earlier this week, had walked off the job for two hours.
Wendy Leed, the NSW Teachers Federation representative at Karabar High, said a lack of staff over the past eight days had left the school able to cover only 50 of 300 classes.
In a letter to the department, Mitch Andrews, the union's representative at Queanbeyan High, said shortages, including of relief teachers, had crippled both schools.
"On Wednesday … we had 11 positions that could not be covered, which resulted in seven senior classes in the library, 10 merged classes [and] three classes on minimum supervision," Mr Andrews wrote.
He said teachers were now relying on clinical psychologists, provided by their workplace, to cope with the strain.
"Numerous staff have been encouraged to consult their GP to be treated for work-related stress issues, and some for secondary post-traumatic stress disorder," Mr Andrews wrote.
School's plan for mixed-mode teaching 'inexplicably' rejected
The teacher shortage is affecting many of the state's public schools, which currently have almost 2,400 staff vacancies.
Given this struggle, Queanbeyan High teachers said the department's rejection of their proposal for mixed-mode lessons was "inexplicable".
Under their plan, students in years 7 to 10 would study at home two days a week, leaving enough teachers for five days of face-to-face classes for years 11 and 12.
Mr Andrews said no other alternative was acceptable.
"If this structure is not reinstated, we — the federation members — refuse to continue to operate under such unsustainable and unsafe working conditions."
The union said the NSW government must respond to its demands before the end of school on Monday, when teachers would meet to "commit and continue" with industrial action.
Government to use bonus payments to lure new staff to town
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell told the ABC the union members' behaviour was "disappointing", saying they were "further disrupting school operations".
In a statement, Ms Mitchell said the state's 2,200 public schools were continuing to provide face-to-face lessons despite disruptions caused by the latest COVID-19 outbreak.
"The department is working at a local level to support flexible measures at individual schools, including Queanbeyan and Karabar."
The Education Department has begun a campaign to recruit for the two schools, which will pay for casual teachers to relocate to the town.
It will also pay a $20,000 sign-on bonus for new permanent teachers hired at Queanbeyan.
However, Mr Andrews said these efforts were part of a "long-term process" to attract staff to the region.
"There are no strategies to help us right now with what we can do to get teachers in front of the classes," he said.
