Victoria's extreme teacher shortage has reached a crisis point as students return to the classroom, with more than 900 positions in government schools still advertised.
Some schools are considering cancelling elective subjects or support programs, combining classes, and hiring more casual relief teachers to cope with the staff shortage.
The situation is worst in Melbourne's outer growth areas, where a boom in student numbers has combined with a lack of graduate teachers.
In Wyndham Vale, in Melbourne's outer south-west, William Evans is getting ready to start grade three. His suburb was recently found to be part of the fastest-growing area in Australia.
But late last year, William received a note saying the school had not been able to find a teacher for his class.
"I felt pretty sad," he said.
His mother, Jacinta Evans, said the school had since lined up a casual teacher for this week, but it was still trying to fill the ongoing role.
She said the school was doing its best, but the past few years had been challenging for William.
"He started [school] when COVID started so there has been so many disruptions to his years of school," she said.
She said William was seeing a specialist to help him catch up on learning to read, and not having a regular classroom teacher was "a bit frustrating".
"It's just another disruption."
Not enough applicants for jobs
Last month, the ABC reported some schools were offering cash bonuses up to $10,000 to woo staff, in a move critics warned would create a "two-tiered system".
In Melbourne's outer north, Mill Park Secondary College is still trying to fill three teaching positions.
Principal Tim Natoli said he only had one applicant for a physical education teacher job at the school, and she told him she had a better offer.
"Four years ago, for a phys ed position we might have received 40, 50, 60 applications," he said.
He said the school would have a qualified teacher in front of every class this week, by hiring extra casual relief teachers and reorganising other programs.
"The worst case scenario is to not offer the types of supports we might otherwise offer if we had more staff," he said.
He said all Victorian schools will be trying their best to provide stability for students.
"We do need a little bit of patience while we set those arrangements up because many of those circumstances are just beyond our control," he said.
Tim Natoli said his school has two paid "pre-service teachers", or student-teachers, on staff, and he would like to see the government do more to allow student teachers to be paid to work in the classroom, with the right support.
He urged people to consider teaching as a career.
"Teaching is challenging at times, but it's also really invigorating and it allows you to actively make a difference to people's lives," he said.
Union wants retention bonuses, student payments
Meredith Peace, president of Australian Education Union Victoria, said there were "literally hundreds of vacancies" that schools had not been able to fill in time for the start of term one.
"Sadly, some schools will have already made the decision to cut parts of their curriculum, in the knowledge that they won't be able to get the teachers they need to offer that curriculum," she said.
She said the union had been working with the state government to deal with the shortage, but more needs to be done.
"We're continuing to call on the government to support schools as much as they can, to ensure every child has a fully qualified teacher in front of the class as soon as possible," she said.
She said the government should implement payments to help student teachers continue their studies, in the face of the rising cost of living.
"We've seen a steady decline over many years in the number of students wanting to study teaching as a career," she said.
But she said the government should also offer a retention bonus to teachers who had been in the system for a while.
"There's no point in attracting a whole lot of new people if we're losing just as many people from the profession," she said.
The latest teacher pay deal will also affect staff levels, reducing teaching loads by one hour in 2023, meaning schools will need to employ more teachers next year than in 2022 to cover classes.
State government trying to build teacher numbers
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said recruiting campaigns had resulted in 5,000 more teachers being registered in Victoria at the end of 2022, compared to 2020.
"The overwhelming majority of government schools are fully staffed for the start of the school year and the delivery of school programs are expected to continue as normal," they said.
The 2022/23 Victorian State Budget includes $779 million to recruit 1,900 extra teachers, as well as $58.9 million over four years to attract and develop quality teachers in all Victorian schools.
In December, state education ministers endorsed a $328 million federal government-led National Teacher Workforce Action Plan to attract more teachers.
