Catholic school principals have been forced to run classes themselves in the Bendigo district, while a new government scheme to address the chronic teacher shortage faces a barrage of criticism.
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From 2024, the federal government will offer 5000 scholarships worth up to $40,000 to encourage more people to take up teaching as a career.
Under the plan, the government will cover the study costs of new undergraduate and postgraduate teaching students provided they teach in government schools or government-run early learning settings for up to four years after graduating.
The plan has drawn the ire of the Catholic education sector which has called for a level playing field in the recruitment of teachers, fearing regional and rural students will suffer badly under the scholarship scheme.
Critical shortages in every sector
National Catholic education executive director Jacinta Collins said the government scheme would skew recruitment of teachers to public schools when there was need across Catholic and other non-government schools.
"There are critical teacher shortages in every sector, particularly in rural, regional and remote areas," she said.
Ms Collins said the Commonwealth was not the employer of teachers, like state and territory governments, and had a responsibility to remain sector-neutral in addressing national teacher workforce challenges.
"Our principals are telling us that they are unable to compete with the incentives being offered in the public sector," she said.
"To favour one sector over another creates an uneven playing field and makes it extremely difficult for Catholic and other low fee schools to attract teachers.
"In some remote areas, the Catholic school is the only school catering to students."
In Bendigo, the executive director of Catholic Education Sandhurst Paul Desmond said the government incentives made sense but it meant there was no way Catholic schools could compete.
"Government schools are great places," Mr Desmond said.
"But it makes no sense for the government to provide an advantage to one group only."
Teachers can help build a community
Mr Desmond said the further away schools were from regional centres like Bendigo, the harder it was to attract teachers.
"There are real challenges to recruit qualified educators to settle in a town and stay," he said.
"They come, get 12 months under their belt to put on their CV and then go.
"We want to build a community. We'd hope they stay for four or five years or even put down roots and stay forever.
"We just want a level playing field."
Mr Desmond said the teacher shortage was "biting" and there was not enough teachers for the 56 schools in the Sandhurst diocese.
While a campaign to recruit teachers from Ireland has reaped some benefits, Mr Desmond said it was not the answer.
"No developed nation should be going overseas to recruit teachers," he said.
Peter Teggelove is the principal of St Joseph's primary School in Quarry Hill and has worked at Rochester.
"At Rochester it was incredibly hard to get teachers to apply and employ them to stay longer than a year," he said.
Principals take classes so students don't miss out
Even at Quarry Hill, last year he had 40 applications to fill teaching positions at his school. This year he had only 10.
Mr Desmond said principals were going into classrooms to teach to ensure there was a teacher in front of the students and it was quite common to have teachers come out of retirement to fill shortages.
He said it was a better alternative to having to cut back on programs.
"Good programs you don't tinker with," he said.
Mr Teggelove said his school would add another classroom next year to cater for increased enrolments and would never turn anyone away from accessing a Catholic education.
Catholic schools aren't zoned so any family who can't access education in their area is usually referred to another Catholic school in the diocese.
Jenny Roberts, co-principal at St Peters North Bendigo, said her school was attracting students with additional needs and it was difficult finding teachers.
She said while the government scholarship scheme was an amazing initiative, it needed to apply "across the board" and not just in government schools.
"It makes no sense. We need to get it right for everybody," Ms Roberts said.
Mr Desmond said students at Catholic schools were not exclusively Catholic and they had to meet a diverse range of needs in the classroom.
He said the Catholic sector teaches 25 per cent of school students in Victoria.
"So why do these incentives only benefit one sector?"
He said his office had written to the Minister calling for a review of the scholarship scheme.
Scheme part of an election promise, says Minister
Minister for Education Jason Clare said the $160 million Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships Program was a federal government election promise.
He said the scheme would target First Nations peoples, people with disability and individuals from rural, regional and remote locations or from low socio-economic backgrounds.
"I want more young people to leap out of high school and want to become a teacher, rather than a lawyer or a banker," Mr Clare said.
"And I want more people in the middle of their careers to consider becoming teachers.
"That's what these scholarships are all about."
