Pandemic has had major ramifications for education says semi-retired teacher

Wayne Feebrey said there is that much work available at the moment that he could, if he wanted, return to full-time work.

"There's a lot of work around at the moment because schools are short of staff and they're struggling to find full-time staff and even part-time and casual staff," he said.

"If I wanted to, I could probably work every day of the week but I don't want to.

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"I think all schools are crying out for casual staff. There's just not enough people to fill the roles, unfortunately."

He believes COVID-19 has played a big part and not just staff being off when they've been diagnosed, but also from a sense of exhaustion and strain the pandemic has put on them.

"A lot of it is down to COVID. People are still getting it and before they changed the rules, if someone in their family got COVID, they had to stay away from school for seven days," he said.

"That meant there was a lot of staff off from time to time. It's a little bit better now, because the rules aren't the same anymore.

"A lot of staff are also tired from the last three years. They've had to work extra hard. People were working from home and trying to look after their own kids as well.

"Staff were teaching kids at recess, lunch, before school, after school and at home. I think that wore them out and I think a lot of them are starting to reconsider teaching as a career, to be honest."

Mr Feebrey believes some teachers weren't feeling valued.

"During COVID, teachers weren't considered to be frontline responders. They weren't given priority for COVID shots, which is crazy because they're looking after the children of people who were dealing with COVID every day," he said.

"I think that kind of sent a bit of a message to teachers, that they weren't valued perhaps."

All this hasn't been helped from a wave of staff retiring.

"Baby boomers, which I guess I am a part of, have come to the end of their career and that's a huge loss to the teaching profession, losing that knowledge, skills and connections to families," Mr Feebrey said.

"That's a big gap to fill and I don't think the government has planned well enough for that."

In attempt to get more teachers in classrooms, Mr Feebrey suggested students studying teaching at university should be offered a financial incentive.

"I think a lot of training teachers out there would love to spend more time in the classroom, rather being in a university lecture hall," he said.

"An apprentice, they learn on the job, and they get paid. Training teachers don't. Four years down the track, they get thrown into the deep end of teaching and suddenly go, 'I don't really want to do this'.

"If they were spending more time in the classroom and there was some kind of financial incentive to do that, that would help a lot of the shortages and encourage more young people to pick it up as a career."

Bathurst High Campus principal Ken Barwick said a number of factors have played a part in schools across the city being short staffed.

"We've been fortunate that we haven't had large numbers out at one time," he said.

"I think there was an ongoing teacher shortage that fell in the middle of COVID, which exacerbated the impact on schools. But I I can't praise my staff enough.

"It probably has been the toughest eight months in schools in terms of bodies on deck, due to a range of factors. One being normal illnesses, one being COVID illnesses and one being staff shortages."

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