Victoria's extreme teacher shortage has led some Melbourne public schools to offer cash bonuses of up to $10,000 to woo staff, in a move critics say will create a two-tier public system.
There are more than 1,100 teaching positions in government schools for next year that still have not been filled, with some high schools considering combining classes across year levels and subjects to cope.
It means students will not get proper classroom teaching in those periods, educators say.
Schools offering bonuses are taking them from their own individual budgets, meaning schools with less money in the bank are unable to compete.
Like dozens of other schools, Sunshine College in Melbourne's west still has several positions vacant for next year.
Assistant principal Yvonne Reilly said she believed she had lost two new recruits because they had been offered incentives at other Melbourne public schools.
She said Sunshine College, where government data showed more than two-thirds of students were in the bottom 50 per cent of socio-educational advantage, had no budget to offer the cash bonuses.
"You can see why schools that have the resources to do that are going to be much better off than schools that don't have the resources to do that," she said.
Ms Reilly said she would not pay the bonuses even if Sunshine College could afford them, because she believed the incentives would lead to divisions between ongoing staff and new recruits, who were suddenly on more money.
"I can understand why people are using desperate measures to try and get someone in, because what else can you do? But it's not very fair," she said.
She shared concerns that there would be many students across the state who would not learn what they should next year due to the teacher shortage.
She said many schools would have to plug holes with teachers with different subject specialties, fill-in teachers and in some cases combine classes across subjects.
Fears practice will pit government schools against each other
The Victorian government has run a grants scheme for the past three years offering incentives of up to $50,000 and ongoing bonuses for teachers working in hard-to-fill positions — however these are usually in regional and remote areas and are independent of school budgets.
As the situation has become more desperate over the past couple of months, sources say the Department of Education has been encouraging some Melbourne public school principals to do whatever they can do to attract staff, including paying bonuses out of their own coffers.
The move has left many school leaders seething, with those unable to offer incentives or unwilling to on ethical grounds, angry that they are losing potential staff to fellow government schools in the same area who can afford to pay.
Maribyrnong College, Victoria's premier publicly funded sports school, is one that has been advertising a $10,000 cash bonus for a physics and science teacher, taken out of its own budget.
Shayne Rule, principal of Lakeview Senior College in Caroline Springs in Melbourne's west, labelled the practice an "arms race" that in the end would leave no winners.
"We've gone from a two-tier system between private schools and government schools, to now potentially a three-tier system where some government schools will offer better conditions than other government schools," he said.
"I think that is unfair."
Union says bonuses intensifying existing problems
Meredith Peace, president of Australian Education Union Victoria, said the union had heard reports of teachers leaving country schools and moving back to the city to take up roles with bonuses.
"[These are] our country schools where there are severe shortages already. It's only going to make their challenges much greater than they already were," she said.
She said the government needed to step in and offer solutions for all schools looking for staff.
"We shouldn't be leaving it up to schools with already inadequate budgets to attract and retain staff — that should be the job of government," Ms Peace said.
A Victorian government spokesperson said schools were able to determine their budgets as they saw fit, and that more funding was delivered to more disadvantaged schools.
"Government schools are encouraged and supported to address staffing needs, with more equity funding provided to schools with higher levels of disadvantage," the spokesperson said.
"All government schools can provide staff salary bonuses of up to $10,000 per year, with the government investing more than $3 billion in schools' equity funding since 2016 to ensure more assistance goes to school communities that need it."
"This is in addition to $958 million that has been provided to support Victorian students over the past four years through the Tutor Learning Initiative, School Breakfast Clubs and the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund."
Lack of graduates, international recruits fuelling shortage
Bec Spink, principal of Spensley Street Primary School in Clifton Hill, said the teacher staffing crisis was already biting hard.
At least twice a week, students from a single class had to be broken up and placed in with other classes across all year levels because replacement teachers could not be found when their permanent teacher was sick.
"I think as government school principals we should be working together as a team … and I think these incentives will pit schools against each other," she said.
Kelly Panousieris, principal of Braybrook College, also said she was opposed to the bonuses, but would not pass judgement on principals who had been forced to use them.
All state schools are given some autonomy about how they use their budgets, but some will have more in the bank than others depending on things like fundraising capacity, wage costs and education programs.
Further impacting on the teacher shortage for next year is the latest EBA, which reduces teaching loads by one hour in 2023, meaning schools will need to employ more teachers next year than in 2022 to cover classes.
The teacher shortage has been fuelled by more children entering schools, a lack of graduates and a lack of international teachers due to COVID.
The 2022/23 Victorian State Budget includes $58.9 million over four years to attract and develop quality teachers in all Victorian schools.
On December 15, state education ministers endorsed a $328 million federal government-led National Teacher Workforce Action Plan to attract more teachers.
