Teacher shortages in some regional Queensland schools are so dire that a new "flying squad" of metropolitan teachers has been created to fill critical vacancies in classrooms.
The Teacher Rapid Response Team (RRT), which was established this school term, is recruiting a pool of south-east Queensland teachers that can fill shortages in regional schools at short notice.
So far there are 38 teachers in the RRT pool, and nine have been deployed to schools in central Queensland.
Critical teacher shortages have led some schools to group multiple classrooms together, with students supervised, rather than receiving face-to-face teaching of subjects, the Queensland Teachers' Union said.
The strategy is being piloted this year to address an increased number of critical vacancies in Queensland schools, according to the education department's recruitment advertisement.
"There is high demand in a range of teaching areas including special education and secondary subjects technologies, mathematics, English and science," the advertisement read.
"There are also primary and early childhood teaching vacancies in specific regional locations."
Incentives to relocate
Participating teachers can be appointed on a temporary basis, from four weeks up to two terms, at the school in need or in a priority geographic area, including in central, north and far north Queensland schools.
Teachers can choose to extend their work there, or relocate to take up a permanent position, while other incentives include funded accommodation, an allowance equivalent to $100 per day to assist with living costs, and payment of a locality allowance.
Participants can also access up to two return flights to Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast or Gold Coast when relocating for more than a term, or an allowance for a certain number of kilometres if the teacher drives to relocate.
Permanent teachers' original jobs at their schools will be held, and filled with relief teachers, during their temporary relocation.
In a statement to ABC Radio Brisbane, an education department spokesperson said the department was working with schools to address current or emerging vacancies.
The spokesperson said the strategy aimed to establish a pool of temporary and permanent teachers from south-east Queensland, where there is a supply of replacement teachers that schools can access to maintain staffing.
"As these are pre-existing teaching positions there are no additional costs to the department for the teaching staff," they said.
"Transfer costs and rural locality allowances are already built into the department's budget every year."
Classes collapsed
Queensland Teachers' Union vice president Leah Olsson said the union was aware there were some schools that were very understaffed, and that had been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Everybody in the schools were taking on different hats, we actually had school leaders who were taking classes, and we do in some areas still have school leaders taking classes for the day," she said.
Ms Olsson said some schools were forced to implement the supervision rule, where classes were collapsed into a group and supervised.
"Some of them were having to double up classes and kids were set tasks and being supervised rather than face-to-face teaching," she said.
The union welcomed the use of a rapid response team, but called for more federal funding to address teacher shortages, and investment in incentives to attract teachers to regional and rural areas.
"We just need to continue to work with [the state government] to ensure that our schools are staffed," Ms Olsson said.
