Ensuring schools have modern classrooms, and teachers required to ensure every child receives a high-quality education is of paramount importance.

Recent government and independent reports have revealed there is neither the capital funding nor workforce strategy required to address these challenges. This is particularly prevalent in the Hunter, with both the Newcastle Herald and NBN TV reporting large-scale overcrowding of classrooms, and inadequate school facilities.

The NSW Auditor-General warned earlier this month that there is simply not enough funding to provide the classroom space needed from 2023 and that the department has not been monitoring or forecasting supply and demand for teachers by discipline and location.

This is not educationally sound.

Now a report from education economist Adam Rorris, Impact of Enrolment Growth on Demand for Teachers, reveals there is a teacher shortage crisis. The report warns that the Department of Education is unable to recruit sufficient teachers to staff schools in NSW now and there are growing shortages.

Beyond fixing the current shortages, the report says that about 11,000 additional teachers will be needed to meet the growth in enrolments to 2031.That calculation is based on NSW maintaining the highest student teacher ratios in the country; an unacceptable situation given the rapid rise in student need.

In the Hunter the situation is dire. Workforce planning is non-existent and there are massive school infrastructure needs that are simply not being met.

Newcastle and Lake Macquarie are one of the most desirable locations to teach in the state, yet even here casual teacher shortages are crippling our schools. No doubt parents and the community in the Hunter would be aghast to find out that schools are having to split classes because of casual teacher shortages. This is not fair on the students, and it's not fair on the teachers.

In other areas of the Hunter and across the state the situation is much worse. At the start of the year there were more than 1000 permanent positions that the department could not fill. Fed up and disillusioned with the government, schools have taken industrial action.

Merriwa Central School, Lake Macquarie High, Medowie Public School, Bulahdelah Central School have joined numerous other schools in Taree, Forster and across the state in walking out over chronic staffing shortages. These decisions are not taken lightly or done out of self-interest.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she had a great respect for teachers and what they do. Yet, her government's actions have been to do the exact opposite. Political spin, the corporatisation of the department and capping wages is not educational policy. These policies are harmful to our students, teachers and to our society.

Put bluntly, schools in the Hunter are facing a classroom crisis, and the government is doing nothing about it. The independent Gallop Inquiry released in February was clear that the NSW Government won't fix the shortages or recruit the additional teachers required without a significant increase in teachers' salaries.

While the workloads of teachers have increased every year, their salaries have fallen every year in comparison with other professions. If we don't pay teachers what they are worth, we won't get the teachers we need. The proposed 1.5 per cent salary increase a year for the next three years is going to make the profession even less attractive, particularly given the increasingly complex and challenging work teachers do every day.

Parents want to send their children to public schools because they know they will get a great education. One of the keys to success in the classroom is being able to give each child the individual attention and support they need.

Teachers in the Hunter are doing a brilliant job, but we need more planning time, support and resources to meet our students growing needs.

Teacher shortages are just unacceptable, and the government is on notice. It simply must do better.

The findings make it clear that an urgent reset in teachers' pay and conditions is needed to attract and retain the number of teachers required to ensure every child is taught by a qualified teacher.

Investing in the profession will pay off for our kids in the Hunter, now and in the future.

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