A teachers’ union believes there is a growing staff shortage in Guernsey schools.
According to Paul Montague of the National Education Union, there is a “chronic ongoing recruitment issue.”
“It’s particularly bad right now, and something definitely needs to be done,” he said.
According to Liz Coffey, executive principal of the Secondary School Partnership, there is no “wholesale recruitment issue.”
Mr Montague spoke after a parent expressed concerns about staffing at St Sampson’s High School.
The parent, who requested anonymity, stated that the “system is broken” and that “they don’t have the staff.”
‘Progress blighted’
Mr Montague said: “I fully accept that people are working as hard as they possibly can to fill these gaps.
“We do have some very good agency staff but understandably agency staff are only here for one term.
“Sometimes we manage to extend that to a year, but it’s still not what’s required in terms of benefiting the youngsters in terms of their education.
“We have so many youngsters whose progress in a particular subject area has been blighted because they’ve had a massive turnover in staff and I just don’t think it’s acceptable.”
Mrs Coffey said there were currently three open teacher vacancies at St Sampson’s.
“We are in the process of making appointments and some new staff are due to start roles soon,” she said.
“While it is never ideal to have vacancies, we have taken steps to ensure the impact on students is minimal.
“Primarily, we have been using agency staff to continue the delivery of lessons, particularly in specialist subject areas where recruitment can be most difficult.”