Teachers are set to stop work again next week after the union says a pay and conditions offer from the government failed to meet their demands.
One issue raised is a lack of streamlined reporting on workforce shortages, which the ACT's Education Directorate says it is addressing.
AEU ACT president Angela Burroughs said a formal response to the deal would be provided next week, but a no vote meant teachers and other school staff would most likely stop work again next Thursday morning.
Ms Burroughs explained the profession had become "less attractive" over time as teachers weighed up potential burnout with pay and conditions.
Representative body ACT Parents' Veronica Elliot said her organisation surveyed parents and carers at the beginning of 2026, which reported that splitting and collapsing was happening weekly to fortnightly.
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Representative body ACT Parents' Veronica Elliot said her organisation surveyed parents and carers at the beginning of 2026, which reported splitting and collapsing was happening weekly to fortnightly.
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Teachers are set to stop work again next week after the union says a pay and conditions offer from the government failed to meet their demands.
Inadequate resourcing and workforce shortages have led to cases where one teacher is managing up to 90 kids due to class 'splitting' and 'collapsing', the union says.
One issue raised is a lack of streamlined reporting on workforce shortages, which the ACT's Education Directorate says it is addressing.
Today, there was minimal supervision for ACT public school students between 9am and 11am as union members met to consider the offer.
AEU ACT president Angela Burroughs said a formal response to the deal would be provided next week, but a no vote meant teachers and other school staff would most likely stop work again next Thursday morning.
Australia is grappling with a national shortage of teachers.
Ms Burroughs explained the profession had become "less attractive" over time as teachers weighed up potential burnout with pay and conditions.
Splitting is described as when a teacher is unavailable, and their students are then allocated to multiple available staff.
Collapsing is when the class cannot be split into groups, and so the whole class is placed with one teacher.
Representative body ACT Parents' Veronica Elliot said her organisation surveyed parents and carers at the beginning of 2026, which reported that splitting and collapsing was happening weekly to fortnightly.
ACT Education Directorate Director-General Jo Wood said the directorate was developing a system to show how schools were being affected.
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