An education union is calling for the teaching registration process to be streamlined in the Northern Territory so more teachers are kept out of court and in classrooms.
Early last year, the NT's Teacher Registration Board began prosecuting people found teaching while unregistered.
Thirteen territory teachers have since faced court, with a total of $5,950 in small fines handed to those found guilty.
The largest fine of $1,000 was for a teacher who went unregistered for six months.
The Australian Education Union acknowledged it was crucial teachers were registered.
But they said the "incredibly clunky and difficult" registration process was keeping too many qualified teachers out of the classroom amid a crippling teacher shortage.
"It happens over Christmas, so there's a number of cases where people are forgetting to get their registration in on time," branch president Michelle Ayres said.
"And if you forget it, there's a lot of work that goes into having to re-register."
Ensuring every teacher is registered
Teacher Registration Board director Maree Garrigan said while there was "never a huge number" of unregistered teachers in the territory, there had been enough in recent years to raise concerns.
"If we look at public confidence in what we do, they would expect that every teacher in front of every student is a registered teacher," she said.
"The fines aren't massive, but it does send a very clear message to the profession."
NT teachers are given a five-year term of registration and are required to pay a fee each year before December 31 to remain registered.
The Teacher Registration Board said they were sent seven reminders in the lead-up to the due date.
If this fee is not paid, the teacher's registration instantly expires, and they have to reapply — this can take up to six weeks to process.
Previously, teachers were given a grace period if they missed the cut-off.
"If it's one or two days, it's not likely to be prosecuted," Ms Garrigan said.
"But some people have been teaching unregistered for quite a number of weeks, or in some cases, months."
Calls to ease teacher administration burden
But Ms Ayres suggested prosecution should not be the initial response.
"Maybe the first port of call isn't going to court but, 'How can we get you registered?' — and our team is supporting members to do that," she said.
Many teachers who were prosecuted had moved from interstate but failed to register to teach in the territory.
Some argued their schools had not warned them this was necessary.
But Ms Garrigan said while schools played a "very big role" in reminding teachers to register, the responsibility ultimately lay with teachers themselves.
"Everywhere in Australia has the same requirement that you have to be registered in that jurisdiction to teach," she said.
But Ms Ayres said more should be done to ease administrative burdens for teachers.
"Teachers in the Northern Territory are so tired, so overworked, so done with any administration task," she said.
"Anything we can take off them, we absolutely need to."
