NSW Teachers Federation members at Gunnedah High School have walked off the job over the impact of the staffing crisis at Gunnedah and many other schools in remote and regional parts of the state.
NSW Teachers Federation Deputy President Henry Rajendra said so far this year the school has had unfilled teaching positions in English, maths, science, PDHPE, industrial arts and special education.
"The inability to fill vacant positions and cover for colleagues on leave at Gunnedah High has forced the school to collapse classes or provide minimal supervision when a teacher was not available," Mr Rajendra said.
"Teachers at Gunnedah have taken this stopwork action to highlight the failure of the NSW Government to appropriately staff their school and the impact the continuing staffing crisis is having on student learning," he said.
Mr Rajendra said staff remain concerned about the Education Department's inadequate provision of teachers for public schools across NSW.
"It is the right of all students to have access to a quality public education with an appropriately qualified teacher in front of every class."
"The staffing crisis is having negative consequences for curriculum delivery to students and placing enormous stress on staff."
"It has been nearly 20 years since the Education Department conducted a comprehensive workforce analysis and the planning necessary to deal with issues of teacher supply and demand."
"This is of enormous concern for teachers across the state given that the staffing crisis is already impacting our schools."
