THE NSW Teachers Federation said its Hunter members are willing to take further industrial action over staffing concerns, after teachers from two schools walked off the job this week.
Federation regional organiser Jack Galvin Waight said members at Merriwa Central School took industrial action on Thursday, following members at Bulahdelah Central School stopping work on Tuesday.
Both are kindergarten to year 12 schools.
Mr Galvin Waight said staff were angry about a range of staffing issues, including numerous teachers being forced to teach classes outside their areas of qualification because of the chronic shortage of teachers.
"The school is unable to back-fill a qualified science teacher position and there are constant shortages of casual teachers," Mr Galvin Waight said.
"On top of that, Merriwa Central School has been unable to spend its COVID staffing supplement because there simply aren't local teaching staff to employ.
"The NSW government has let down students, parents and the wider Hunter community by failing to provide teachers for every student and every class.
"The education department have known of the dire teacher shortage for some time but failed to address the problem. It is grossly unfair for students, and in many cases, those with the most complex learning needs."
"The recommendations of Valuing the Teaching Profession - An Independent Inquiry called for a reset of staffing and resourcing of the state's schools and we are calling on the NSW government and the education department to urgently get on with the job."
Bulahdelah Central School teachers also stopped work on Tuesday.
Mr Galvin Waight said many of its teachers taught in "hard to staff areas" before transferring to the coast at a time when there was confidence in the Department of Education's staffing processes.
"This is a state-wide problem, not specific to Merriwa or Bulahdelah," he said.
"Schools around the Hunter and across the state, are have difficulty attracting and retaining staff.
"While casual teacher shortages are having a drastic affect on student outcomes, the ability for teachers to access their leave entitlements and undertake appropriate professional learning.
"This is simply not acceptable."
He said the government had weakened over the past decade previously-successful processes that ensured adequate staffing of all schools across the state.
"Members have declared their preparedness to take further action should the government fail to address the issues."
A spokesman for the department previously told the Newcastle Herald it recognised "there are challenges with attracting professionals to live and work in the regions, and teaching is no different".
"That is why to help improve teacher availability and experience in rural and remote NSW public schools, the Rural and Remote Education Human Resources Strategy was announced in November 2017," it said.
"This is a $59.4 million investment over five years. Scholarships and incentives are available for teaching students to work in rural and remote schools, as well as recruitment and retention incentives for permanent and temporary teachers and school executives."
It said it also had a range of initiatives to attract people to areas of demand, including scholarships and sponsored training programs.
"The government is also currently reviewing rural and remote incentives to identify evidence-based best practice to attract and retain high quality staff in rural and remote areas."
