A government initiative aimed at attracting more teachers to regional and remote schools in Western Australia has been labelled "too little too late" by the state's teachers' union.
The $12.4-million package announced last week will provide one-off incentive payments of up to $17,000 to teachers and school leaders to work in 48 of the state's schools most desperate for staff.
Eligible staff will be able to claim the payments on top of existing incentives, meaning some teachers could receive as much as $30,000 on top of their salary.
But State School Teachers' Union of WA senior vice-president Matt Jarman said more needed to be done to address the critical worker shortage.
"This is an initiative from the government that's too little too late," he said.
"I'm not comfortable that it is going to address the matters that see people leaving teaching.
"There are still people in the community who are qualified and registered teachers that are choosing to leave the profession, mainly due to workload."
'Always a large churn'
The schools targeted with funding were chosen based on a variety of factors, including accessibility, remoteness, staff turnover and the number of job applications received.
It is not known how many positions are vacant heading into next year — Education Minister Sue Ellery says the figure is constantly changing.
"The recruitment process is going on as we speak … there is always a large churn," she said.
"There are less people choosing to do teaching at university — it is a maturing workforce, so there are high levels of retirement and also COVID has put a real focus on issues faced in the classroom."
Of the 48 schools targeted, 15 are in the Kimberley, 13 in the Goldfields, seven in the Midwest, seven in the Pilbara, five in the Wheatbelt and one in the south-west.
A study published by Monash University last month found a quarter of Australian teachers did not feel safe at work and fewer than 14 per cent felt their workload was manageable.
The study was based on more than 5,000 responses.
Mr Jarman says retaining staff in regional areas is often harder than attracting them in the first place.
"This is the worst teacher shortage that I can remember since 2008," he said.
"What's different here is what's driving it and that's not feeling safe at work.
"One in five graduates aren't even entering the classroom once they've got their qualification and teachers are getting to 50 years old and leaving the classroom rather than sticking around until retirement age.
"We are losing our teachers because of workload and the standards they've seen for too long in classrooms."
The state's housing shortage is also making it difficult to retain staff.
Ms Ellery said there was no quick was to increase supply.
"The Minister for Housing has put $200m into [government regional officer housing]," she said.
"We could quadruple that amount of money today, but because of the supply shortages and the overheated construction industry we would have trouble building them."
Shadow education minister Peter Rundle has welcomed the latest round of funding but says the sector had been "neglected" by the McGowan government.
"A lot of the scenarios that are leading up at the moment are that there will be classes amalgamated," he said.
"There will be shortages."
Culture shift
Tyril Houghton is an award-winning maths teacher who worked in WA's public school system for 48 years.
She says the culture within classrooms has changed significantly during that time.
"When I started teaching I had 45 students in my class," she said.
"The difference then was when Mrs Houghton would say 'Jump', the students would say 'How high?'
"Now they say, 'Why? Convince me I need to jump.'
"COVID has had a massive impact … it's increased the mental health issues for everybody.
"Parents are anxious, kids are anxious and teachers are anxious.
"One of the biggest differences is the workload and the support availability of curriculum documents for teachers to use."
Ms Houghton says the job can be exhausting, but she is hopeful the industry will keep attracting passionate teachers into the future.
"We need to improve the status of teaching so people see it as a worthwhile career and people want to go into that brilliant vocation," she said.
"There's nothing like the joy you gain from seeing the light turn on in students' eyes when they actually get it."
