Teacher shortages are forcing dedicated educators to leave

As a teacher of 21 years, I can vouch for the impact that it's having on teachers and students alike. Carefully planned lessons, taking hours of professional crafting, are tossed aside when split classes unexpectedly add extra students to a classroom.

Secondary students suffer when classes are cancelled because schools can't find (or afford) relief teachers for specialist subjects. The staffing shortage compounds the challenges of a profession already buckling under an increasingly bureaucratic workload.

Teaching is a vocation, but there can come a point for educators when the stresses of the workplace overwhelm the drive to fulfil our "calling". We give our hearts and souls (and personal time and personal funds) to provide our students what they need in the context of growing social, economic, environmental and mental health problems that we did not cause and cannot cure.

The eye-watering opportunity cost of losing intelligent, committed, once-enthusiastic new educators who resign after years of burning the candle at both ends, frankly, makes me sick.

Ever the optimist, however, I do feel a small spark of hope now that this issue is gaining public attention. I send my very best wishes to the newly formed Teacher Shortage Taskforce. May you have the luck, vision and funding that you need to help us and, by extension, our students.

May I remind your readers that throughout Australia Wattle Day was officially celebrated yesterday (September 1).

The first day of spring is the ideal date to express appreciation and gratitude to our beautiful and bountiful country.

Wearing a sprig of wattle - or its colours - strengthens the bond between the people and the land.

Our spirits are uplifted by our national flower which has survived fire and foe for more than 30 million years.

Re: Sarah-Anne Henry's article ("The growing gender pay gap is a wake-up call for the next generation", canberratimes.com.au, August 31). Claims of a growing gender pay gap fly in the face of basic facts. The earnings gap (note: not the wage rate, as paying different rates is illegal) is not due to "gender-based harassment and discrimination", but to the reality that male full-time workers work longer hours than women (42 hours as opposed to 36, ABS figures). If a woman wants a man's income, then she should work the same hours as a man.

Errol Good from Macgregor (Letters, August 29) complains rates are too high given roads are full of potholes, weeds abound, footpaths are broken and dangerous and bus stops are filthy.

It is worth reflecting on these points. If the bus shelters are filthy then there are some filthy people among your neighbours. Canberra is expanding rapidly as newcomers are attracted to our bush capital, so the area of road surface is also expanding.

While the whinger may regret his area's potholes, someone in another suburb is having his potholed road fixed. The weeds are strongly protective of our soils, as during very dry times like the years leading up to the 2019-20 bushfires, the only green things left alive in our "grassed" areas were the weeds which tenaciously held the soil together.

Footpaths become cracked and broken when utilities contractors drive heavy machinery over them. Do something proactive such as complaining to the utilities companies or watering the nature strip.

Like many others I have watched with interest when media conferences are given by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

When the mounting death numbers became overwhelming I changed my focus from what she was saying to looking at the clothes she was wearing.

All I can say is she must have a very large wardrobe.

A suggestion from me. How about a public online auction of some of her outfits?

All the proceeds from such an auction could be distributed evenly among a wide range of community groups representing NSW health workers, the families of people who have died from COVID-19 in NSW and regional communities, including Indigenous Australians.

So there you have it; explicit and official from Macquarie Street and on the hill in Canberra: think happy thoughts.

There is only one number that matters; the happy vaccination number. Strictly avert your gaze from the unhappy figures billowing out of the highly vaccinated, relaxed-again UK and US in the last few months.

ED presentations, hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths are all such trivialities, as will be the inevitable dragging down of every other Australian jurisdiction to the lowest common denominator.

Given the mismanagement-driven evolution and spread of COVID-19 to date, here and overseas and vaccinated or unvaccinated, we may all yet end up castigated for this newly articulated cult of Mammon.

It is evident to perhaps all but the most ardent of LNP fans that the Berijiklian government's reckless refusal to go into immediate lockdown two months ago has led to what now appears to be an unstoppable spread.

Back then it was obvious to ordinary people and medical experts alike that a lockdown was needed. But the LNP deemed that "the economy" had to take precedence.

This failure to act in a timely manner will likely turn out to be the greatest false economy in our history.

The ramifications of Berijiklian's inaction are way beyond the economic. It is now affecting the entire populations of Australia and New Zealand.

If only the Premier could take responsibility for what she has done. But no, instead, she and her health minister skirt around it every day as they tell us firmly what we need to do to move forward.

An apology won't stop the virus, but it might allow thousands, maybe even millions of us to remove fury from the long list of emotions that we are feeling as we try to work out how we can get through this without permanent damage.

The terror attacks at Kabul airport add a humiliating full stop to 20 years of talk by Liberal and Labor prime ministers about democracy, women's rights, free press, the rule of law, and education for children.

If military success is achieving grand objectives, Kabul also marks a defeat for the West and the third defeat for Australia in 50 years; Vietnam, the Middle East and Afghanistan.

In each war Australian governments effusively praised the Anzac spirit. Yet despite this spirit, no conflict ended with achieving the high ambitions with which we dispatched our troops.

Did we pick the wrong causes? Did we trust the judgment of allies too much? Was our strategy faulty? The best tactics, the most expensive equipment, and the brave actions of individuals count for little when the grand plan is poor. Strategy is the framework from which all else hangs.

It's time for national introspection to learn what went wrong in Afghanistan and what must be put right before we dispatch the next generation of Australians to fight in the South China Sea or elsewhere.

For five decades politicians and generals told us everything was fine up in these wars right up to the point they clearly were not. The discussion needs to involve us all.

A number of countries are now providing Pfizer booster shots after eight months to ensure the strength of immunisation is retained.

As a person who had my second Pfizer vaccination in May I'd like to know if the government has already placed orders that will provide the same opportunity for Australians.

If not, why not?

Given that Santa lives at the coronavirus-free north pole will he be denied access to Australia? And will he be labelled "selfish" if he comes down our chimneys without a COVID-19 passport?

Will he be arrested by our over zealous law enforcement officers?

How have we become so mean-spirited and heartless as to fine mothers for allowing children to play on swings and slippery-dips in public parks?

The "elites" have turned the police force into a bunch of heartless bullies. Un-Australian?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at Broelman's cartoon sending up Gladys (Monday, August 30). What about Daniel Andrews? How long has Melbourne been in lockdown? But then again, Victoria is a Labor state.

David Hobson (Letters, August 28) should check his figures on deaths from influenza in Australia in 2019. According to the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System 902 Australians died from influenza in 2019. This is a significant discrepancy from the 4300 claimed by Mr Hobson. Since then there have been very few influenza related deaths.

It is clear from looking at comments on the ACT Health Facebook page (and from my own personal experience) that the system for getting quarantine exit approval is not working properly. Quarantine relies in large part on people's goodwill. That goodwill is eroded if people cannot exit quarantine despite abiding by all the rules.

With promises of extra freedoms for the vaccinated the new mantra to replace "have a go to get a go" may well become "get a shot to have a shot (at freedom)".

You know, COVID-19 hasn't changed the way the world is. It's simply shown some people who we really are. Shallow, stupid and xenophobic. That is who we are.

Scott Morrison should note India is currently vaccinating 10 million people a day.

I have no idea what Karen Hardy was trying to say when she said she liked her men "sweet, white and weak" ("What simple things are getting you through lockdown?", August 29) likening them to her cup of tea. Is she saying men of colour have no place in her life? An offensive comment that can be taken either way.

Senator Zed Seselja says that Australia is a world leader in emission reductions. Ha ha.

What is the point of a continuous lockdown to get down to zero when we have no hard border with NSW. Anyone from there can just bring the virus over at anytime. We will be in lockdown for the next 10 years.

I was absolutely shocked to hear the Gaetjens inquiry is on hold again. Over six months to ask staffers a couple of questions, write down the answers and issue a report. Perhaps this exacting task could be delegated to anyone in Prime Minister and Cabinet, or even back to the PM.

This isn't original but it is very true: "The worst part of a seven-day lockdown is the first 10 weeks."

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