Zoe and Aleah Smith are beginning a new adventure today, leaving home this morning with backpacks full and bucket hats on.
It's the first day of preschool for the three-year-old identical twins, who join thousands of students across the Northern Territory heading into classrooms today.
The NT government is promising that each of those classrooms will have a teacher in front of it, as concerns about teacher shortages crop up again.
The twins' mother Rebecca said she doesn't know how many current vacancies there are at the girls' school in Darwin's northern suburbs, and worries about the ongoing issue.
"I do worry sometimes about the long-term for their education," she said.
Other Territory parents are also wondering "whether [their kids] are going to receive everything they need", she said, "if we don't have the right teachers in the right jobs and enough teachers."
Union, government at odds over teacher numbers
At least 35 teaching positions are vacant across the NT at the moment, Education Minister Eva Lawler said this week.
The number is lower than the official figure given at the same time last year.
"I think this time last year, there were about 59 teacher vacancies," Education Minister Eva Lawler said.
She said 150 new teachers and 11 principals were starting work in NT schools, with 102 from interstate.
But the number is disputed by the education union.
Based on an assessment of membership data, the Australian Education Union NT believes a reduction in overall teaching positions has artificially reduced the official number of "vacant" spots.
"We speculate that there are less teaching positions in the territory in 2023 as a whole," president Michelle Ayres said.
"So even though the department of education may say all positions are filled we still are likely seeing a lot less teachers."
Total teacher numbers are not made publicly available and Minister Lawler's office is yet to respond to follow-up questions.
She was asked at a press conference about another union claim, that the number of new teachers was over-stated because some education department staff had been transferred to classroom roles.
"Look I don't get down to those details, but you know what I will say to the education union?" she said.
"Now's the time to actually be positive and jump onboard with the work the department's doing, the work our government's doing."
She pointed to the government's recent agreement to drop a proposed freeze on teacher wages and said the time for "adversarial" behaviour from the union was over.
She said: "Get behind education because there's really good things happening in education in the Territory, and be a part of that and be positive about it."
Government defends progress on new remote funding model
Late last year the government also backflipped on its decision to cut a rental subsidy for teachers in Katherine, where teacher shortages have been especially bad in recent years.
Ms Ayres said while remote schools are the worst affected, even schools in the major populations centres are struggling.
“I meet with teachers, sometimes school principals, who are [union] members who are struggling to staff some of the biggest schools in Alice, Palmerston and Darwin," she said.
"It puts a lot more pressure on the teachers that are there … but also it doesn't produce a conducive environment for learning."
The government has also defended its progress on transitioning to a new way of funding remote schools, after a report found the current model some of the most disadvantaged areas.
The union has warned some remote schools could collapse in the time the government has said it will take to implement change.
Last week Minister Lawler said the government had agreed to place an immediate funding "floor" in the budgets of some schools in central Australia for the time being.
