As the NSW teachers’ strike looms next week,the union is using the same tactics that brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets of Sydney in the 1980s.
The NSW Teachers Federation has voted to take a full day of industrial action as a pay dispute with the state government escalates.
Teaching salary levels send the wrong signal to young people considering a career in education.
Some students have received positive COVID-19 results two days before the rest of the school community was told to isolate.
More than 500,000 students in years 2 to 11 returned to class across the state today,a week after kindergarten,year 1 and year 12 students went back to school.
Confidential departmental documents show NSW government schools face an unprecedented lack of teachers and are likely to “run out in the next five years”.
Teachers are campaigning for a wage rise of five per cent beyond the government’s cap,and say low wages are putting people off a career in classrooms.
Teachers in locked-down south-western Sydney will not be able to attend work in person outside the red zone under the harsher lockdown restrictions announced on Saturday.
The shortage is biting statewide as some schools battle to fill more than 10 vacancies each. At the same time,enrolment numbers for education degrees have fallen by a third - with half of trainees failing to finish their degree.
A toxic mix of workload pressures and salary disparity has led to serious teacher shortages.
A NSW Teachers Federation inquiry has called for a 10 to 15 per cent pay rise for teachers,saying low pay is dangerous to the quality of education in public schools.