LOTE teachers shunning regional posts addressed at ICPA delegations

Queensland Isolated Children's Parents' Association president Tammie Irons said the issue, raised in Charters Towers at the education lobby group's annual conference in June, had been top of its agenda during delegations in Brisbane last week.

"Enrolment growth in Schools of Distance Education has been a concern of ours for a while," Ms Irons said.

"For example, Capricornia's enrolments have doubled in the last couple of years, some of it because of medical reasons but a lot of it is because of Languages other than English, which SDEs are delivering to small schools.

"The department can't get qualified LOTE teachers to come to the bush so, because LOTE is compulsory in years five and six, their only option is to go through SDEs."

Capricornia's enrolment increased from 275 students in 2014, to 3237 in 2019.

"This doesn't mean student backsides on seats in the schools - it's the extra teaching staff that is taking up space," Ms Irons said.

It's seen students doing their work in tents or sitting on the floor when they've come in for mini-schools or NAPLAN testing, particularly at the Rockhampton campus.

Ms Irons said the education department had expressed interest in ICPA's advice on how to attract and retain teachers in regional Queensland.

"We say, there's not many teachers that hate it once they get there.

"Yes, they've got to have internet, housing, support, but all of that's available.

"But the thing is to get them there doing pracs - we think it comes down to university and pre-service training."

According to Education Minister Grace Grace, she had been advised there was ample space for classes at the Emerald campus as well as additional space in Rockhampton which could be used, if required.

"The Department of Education is working with the Capricornia SDE on a strategic plan regarding enrolments into the future.

"The department continues to work to attract LOTE teachers, however it can be challenging.

"I look forward to working with the ICPA and other stakeholders to address this issue in the future."

Ms Irons said another part of the equation was that SDE principals had the autonomy to make decisions and could turn enrolments to other distance education schools.

"We understand the principals have met since our conference so hopefully we'll see an outcome from that before too long," she said.

"The bottom line is, our kids need a roof over their heads.

"This is their school - they deserve to be catered for."