One in three ACT public school teachers are considering leaving within their first three years in the profession amid chronic workforce shortages and under-resourcing, new survey data reveals.
The Australian Education Union ACT branch surveyed more than 1800 members and found that 91 per cent of respondents believed workforce shortages were negatively impacting their school.
Absences are increasingly difficult to fill with only 3 per cent of people surveyed saying a relief teacher was always available to cover classes, while 43 per cent said casual teachers were rarely or never available.
When relief teachers aren't available to cover absences, classes are often split up between other teachers, leading to classes of more than 50 students. In colleges, classes can be cancelled and moved online.
Seventy-eight per cent of respondents said classes were split at their school at least once a week while 12 per cent reported that it happened on a daily basis.
AEU senior industrial officer Patrick Judge said students' learning suffered and teachers saw an increase in negative behaviour when classes were split up.
"They're missing out on the support of a teacher who knows those students really well, who knows the program really well, who has developed the lessons that they're going to be teaching them and they're getting an inferior solution," Mr Judge said.
Of the principals surveyed, 94 per cent said the Education Directorate was not adequately resourced to meet the demands of schools and three quarters said they didn't have enough money in the budget for relief teachers.
Mr Judge said teachers were being asked to do non-teaching tasks, including mental health crisis support, welfare checks and writing stories about students.
A teacher shortage taskforce with members of the union and the Education Directorate will meet for the first time this week.
Education Minister Yvette Berry said the survey showed the national teacher shortage was having an impact locally.
"We've introduced some new strategies to help with workforce shortages, including a dedicated staffing hotline and more centralised management of the relief teacher pool," Ms Berry said.
"Work is also underway on a national and international recruitment campaign, to attract teachers to ACT public schools."
