Tamworth teachers protest staff shortages, wages in 'Day of Action' rally outside Kevin Anderson's office

At a rally outside Kevin Anderson's electorate office on Wednesday, Armidale Teachers' Association president, and school counsellor Michael Sciffer, criticised the MP for inaction on the problem.

"On this very spot on June 30, Kevin Anderson stood here and addressed public and Catholic school teachers at our historic joint strike," he said.

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"He told us that he'd heard our concerns, and he would take them to his government. He told us he was intimately aware of the chronic teacher shortages here in Tamworth, shortages disrupting the learning of children and young people every day ...

"And here we are more than three months later, and his government is seeking to impose a 5 per cent pay cut on us after inflation; 5 per cent this year and two more years of pay cuts after that."

Mr Anderson said Wednesday - the first day of HSC for the region's 601 students - was a "huge day for our year 12s and I sincerely congratulate them on their efforts in getting this far".

"I am well aware of issues facing education in our region having met with local teachers over a number of months," he said.

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"I continue to feed our local knowledge back through to the minister to ensure our concerns are represented to the NSW Government.

"The issue of salaries is currently before the Industrial Relations Committee and I am confident that the process will achieve a constructive resolution."

Teachers from both the Teachers' Federation, which represents government schools, and the Independent Education Union, participated in the demonstration.

Part of a statewide "day of action" it was held on the day of government attempts to convince the Industrial Relations Commission to endorse a new three-year award for the sector.

Teachers complained that the pay offer of just 2.53 per cent would mean real pay cuts of more than 3.5 per cent, given high inflation.

Teachers told the rally that the low and declining pay was making the sector less and less popular, with shortages getting worse every month.

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Peel High School teacher Chris Rankmore said the school is routinely forced to merge classes due to a lack of teachers.

He said it was common to have a single teacher "babysitting" a class of 50 or even 60 students - too many to properly teach.

"So there wouldn't be a day that went through of the last three terms that you didn't have classes uncovered by a teacher," he said.

"The unfortunate thing is usually the senior classes year 11 or 12 kids that was shoved in a library because of the lack of teachers."

IEU organiser Dave Towson said the system needed to offer pay increases in order to attract new teachers and to prevent experienced ones retiring early, or moving to a different industry.

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Mr Sciffer said there had been a 30 per cent drop in the number of university students studying teaching, with just 50 per cent of teacher graduates ultimately entering the profession.

"Every term, I find out about another colleague who's resigned and is working in a completely different industry," he said.

Mel Hodges from Oxley High School said teachers were exhausted and "what we're doing is completely unsustainable".

"We are being failed, our kids are being failed," she said.

"We are being failed by those who are meant to be helping us, those with a bloody good pay, who were meant to support instead of being put into a position where we are being loaded down."

Teachers also wore their union shirts to work and held votes to reject the government's pay offer on the "day of action" - but did not disrupt classes by taking industrial action.

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