Teachers at a fiery rally in front of South Australia's parliament house have threatened further strikes if they aren't offered better pay and conditions, but the government is still hopeful of a resolution.
Thousands of Australian Education Union (AEU) members walked off the job on Thursday in the second strike in two months, with discussions over a new enterprise bargaining agreement reaching a deadlock.
AEU SA branch president Andrew Gohl threatened more disruption if the government does not deliver increased pay and reduced workloads.
"We have 1800 students in South Australia right at this very moment who have no regular teacher in front of them," he told crowds massed before the steps of parliament.
"This is a government that is fixed on the short term and political imperative without a view to what's best for South Australian people, what's best for public education in the long term."
Hundreds of schools across the state shut their doors or offered modified classes but physics and accounting SACE exams for about 1000 year 12 students went ahead as planned.
The AEU had set the Malinauskas government an ultimatum to present an improved pay offer by Monday, but the revised proposal of a four per cent increase in year one, three per cent in year two and 2.5 per cent in year three only served to rile the union further.
"(This is) the only place in Australia where a third offer could possibly get worse than the second," Mr Gohl said.
The government's previous offer of three pay rises of three per cent over three years also included two one-off $1500 payments, meaning many lower-paid teachers would be worse off under the new deal.
South Australian teachers are the lowest paid in the country, with graduates earning less than $75,000. Earlier this year their NSW counterparts won an historic wage increase, including a rise of more than 12 per cent for teachers straight out of university.
The union has also taken umbrage with the government's refusal to bring forward a seven-year delay to implement a reduction in teaching hours, arguing teachers are in desperate need of workload relief and cannot afford to wait that long.
Education Minister Blair Boyer said it was frustrating that the union still hadn't presented a counter-offer since it's initial claim of 8.6 per cent.
"We have never disagreed with the items that are at the heart of this enterprise bargaining process," he told reporters.
"Our teachers do need to be paid more, we do need to tackle workload."
He argued the seven-year wait for reduced teaching hours was necessary to ensure the government could find the extra 500 teachers needed and pointed to other initiatives, like increased disability support funding, as helping ease the workload.
The parties were closer to an agreement than they appeared, Mr Boyer said, but mooted union demands of five to six per cent were unrealistic.
"I'd very much like to see the union come back to the table but they have to come back to the negotiating table with a willingness to move on some items," he said.
The Greens called on Labor to impose a levy on the big banks to find the money needed to fix a public school system "at breaking point".
"The Malinauskas government should be prioritising funding for public schools and their teachers," Greens treasury spokesman Robert Simms said.
