Education staff being recruited to fill Covid-related vacancies at New South Wales schools in Australia have said they are being sent into teaching environments without adequate training and were just plugging holes in a broader “casual crisis”, reports The Guardian. The Department of Education announced internally in January that it would call on department staff with valid teaching credentials in term one, as high omicron case numbers and strict close contact rules exacerbated pre-existing teacher shortages. More than 750 departmental staff with current teaching qualifications were signed up for the scheme, which has been extended for another term. But with the department declining to nominate an end date, staff said they are concerned they will end up covering flu and other sickness absences in the coming months.

Other concerns raised by participating staff in communications seen by The Guardian Australia included a former early education teacher sent to work at a high school. Some staff claimed they had been working a dual load, clocking full-time teaching and departmental hours every week, and said they were considering leaving the sector over the program. “The department’s current priority is the continuity of face-to-face learning,” a department spokesperson said. “Managers support staff in managing the current work to accommodate temporary placements of NSBTs (non-school based teachers) in schools.” A decision for the continuation of the scheme past the end of term two has not yet been made.