The return to face-to-face learning after two years of lockdowns has not brought an end to classroom chaos across the country, with fears the teacher shortage will cause even more students to fall through the cracks.
Psychologists warn that school staff shortages, particularly in rural, regional and remote areas, will see vulnerable students fall drastically behind, leading to greater disparity between students down the track.
"There's a group of students that have more vulnerabilities, so that could be a learning disorder, a trauma in the home space or it could be retention problems," Australian Psychological Society president Tamara Cavenett told the ABC.
"And the greatest issue is that it creates that disparity between those who are more vulnerable and those who are not."
Regional teacher shortages are nothing new thanks to an ageing workforce and a lack of younger people entering the profession.
But supply issues have been exacerbated by COVID and a particularly virulent flu season. Schools would normally employ relief teachers to fill the gaps but, as Wodonga Senior Secondary College principal Vern Hilditch explained, they have been hard to come by too.
Australian Education Union president Corenna Haythorpe described the situation as a "major crisis".
"Two weeks ago a principal in regional South Australia told me that 18 of the 32 staff members were absent due to either COVID or flu," she said.
Ms Cavenett said any disruption to routine and structure in classrooms would have more far-reaching consequences in the regions because mental health services were harder to access.
She said those living in regional and rural areas would experience worse impacts than city-based students.
"Without a doubt it's problematic for those [regional] children," she said.
Schools try myriad options to solve crisis
Schools and education departments have been trying all sorts of options to cope with the situation, including collapsing classes, flying in staff from cities and sending students home to study unsupervised.
At Trinity College, in Albury in New South Wales, students in years 8 to 10 are spending one day per week studying at home without teacher supervision.
Principal Tony Sheumack said the temporary measure was designed so that students could prepare for upcoming assessments.
"Our families have accepted this incredibly well.
"Given the home learning that was in previous years, this is seen to be a very, very minor adjustment to our program. We're hoping that this is only for this fortnight."
Another option schools have is to hire university students — not yet registered as teachers — to take classes. Last year the Queensland College of Teachers approved 363 applications from schools to employ student teachers.
In the first four months of this year, there were already 341 approvals and 80 per cent of those came from outside the metropolitan area.
But Mr Hilditch said the education sector needed to look at longer-term solutions. In Wodonga, in northern Victoria, he has been trying to manage days where 45 per cent of his staff are sick or required to stay at home.
"We need to get acceptance we have to provide programs to some degree which are blended.
"We have to look at how we structure the week of students. And we can't be in a situation where students are turning up to a school where teachers are stretched, there's very few of them there and they're just going through the motions of childcare rather than teaching."
