Vital areas of school children's education are being missed due to teacher shortages in regional Queensland.
Learning areas such as information technology, design, maths, science and english have been identified as potential missed learning opportunities by Member for Burdekin Dale Last who is calling on the state government to increase incentives to help attract and maintain more teachers in areas such as the Isaac region.
Mr Last said he has seen firsthand in the central Queensland region the additional stress the teacher shortage is placing existing school staff with higher workloads.
And this is leading to education programs being dropped.
"Between 2022-2023 I have personally raised issues with the Isaac region's teacher shortages multiple times and all the while we have had other teachers have to pick up the slack," he said.
"Or worse - students are missing out on specialist programs like MSTEP because there is simply not the staff to run them.
"When a school is missing teachers in vital areas such as information technology and design, maths, science and english or industrial training programs like MSTEP, then there are students that are missing out on opportunities to shape their learning for future careers.
"That fact alone should be ringing alarm bells for the education minister to provide whatever is necessary to bring teachers to these areas."
Many of the regions struggling to attract and keep school staff are mining regions, and Mr Last feels the high cost of living in these communities was an obstacle for educators and the state government should offer incentives or improve housing to help fix the issue.
"The shortage of teachers in the Isaac region is another demonstration of this state government's willingness to collect millions of dollars in revenue from the region and fail to invest in another vital service return," he said.
"There needs to be a recognition that positions in rural and regional areas like the Isaac are vastly different to those in larger regional cities and because of this there needs to be packages in place to encourage them to come to these areas.
"Currently rather than being offered incentives to encourage teachers to work in these areas we are seeing this state government demonstrate that those teachers who want to work in the Isaac region are only worthy of either shared accommodation or accommodation in mining camps."
Andrew Hawken is a parent of two children and owns the Dysart pharmacy.
Mr Hawken said he had an extreme amount of respect for the local public system teaching staff who worked tirelessly, but switched his children to a private school in a neighbouring city in an attempt to provide more stability for their education.
"They are struggling to get teachers and they are struggling to get them to stay," he said.
"In my opinion a lot of the ones that come out are inexperienced and they are ill-prepared for what it is like to live in a rural town in central Queensland.
"It's a complex relationship between students and teachers and when teachers are constantly turning over you don't get that relationship to develop."
Mr Hawken said he believed teachers needed to be motivated for longer stints in regional areas.
"If they receive a secure job, in exchange for that they should be enforcing teachers to spend longer in the one spot," he said.
"If too many teachers leave a school at one time, which has happened in Dysart in the past, it's devastating for the school and there seems to be no one controlling that."
Education minister Grace Grace said the state government was offering higher pay to teachers in regional areas and accommodation options were provided to help solve the staffing problem.
"We are always keen to recruit more of the brightest minds to educate our youngest Queenslanders - particularly to remote and regional areas where we know it can be more challenging to fill vacancies," she said.
"That is why our latest enterprise bargaining agreement gives Queensland teachers some of the best pay and conditions in Australia, it also includes an attraction and retention package for regional, rural, and remote teachers which improves existing entitlements like travel and relocation allowances, housing assistance, and funded flights home, as well as introducing new ones.
"For example, under the new agreement, if a beginning teacher chooses to head to Mistake Creek State School to start their career, they take home over $86,300, compared to the base starting salary in Brisbane of $78,490.
"There are over 325 accommodation units available to teachers in the Burdekin electorate, with the department currently finalising additional property leases."
Ms Grace said the both state and federal government was focused on employing more teachers.
"In Term 1, 2023, we employed 92 new teachers in state schools within the Burdekin electorate and we still want more teachers, but the number of vacancies is half what it was this time last year," she said.
"Teacher recruitment is not an issue unique to Queensland which is why are working closely with the Albanese government on the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan, an issue which was largely ignored by the previous government."
Anneli Day from the Isolated Children's Parents' Association said she also had concerns in regards to the shortage of teaching staff in regional Queensland.
"There is a state-wide teacher shortage, and the real concern is that this will cause greater disparity for rural and remote students," she said.
"Schools across the state are finding it increasingly difficult to fill teaching positions and rural and remote areas face additional challenges, ICPA Qld's focus is on the attraction and retention of quality teachers to rural areas.
"We are working closely with stakeholders such as the Department of Education, Queensland College of Teachers, universities and various advisory groups to achieve this.
"There are several incentives, offered for rural and remote teaching including HECS debt reductions, permanency, and additional leave entitlement which ICPA Queensland hopes will draw interest to these positions."
Ms Day said housing played an important role in attracting and keeping teaching staff.
"The provision of quality, well maintained, safe and affordable housing is a major drawcard for attracting teachers to rural areas," she said.
"Rural areas are competing with the rest of the state to attract quality teachers and a safe, well maintained, and affordable dwelling is paramount, other factors, such as affordable and reliable internet services, opportunities for professional development and mentoring all play a significant role too.
"Teacher preparedness is crucial in the attraction and certainly the retention of teachers in a diversity of environments.
"ICPA Queensland is working closely with universities to address this, exposing pre-service teachers to rural practicums and relevant course content, teachers that are well prepared in all facets generally immerse themselves and enhance student outcomes in their communities."
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