More than 340 teaching positions across Far North Queensland remain either vacant or filled by short-term contract staff heading into the second half of the 2026 school year, according to Queensland Department of Education data released last month. In Cairns alone, at least eleven state primary and secondary schools reported to the department that they could not fill permanent classroom roles before the July term break. The shortage is most acute in subjects including mathematics, science and special education.
The timing matters. Queensland's state government is currently finalising its 2027 budget allocations for regional education, with Treasury submissions due by August 14. Advocacy groups say this is the last realistic window to secure additional funding for recruitment incentives and housing subsidies — two factors that principals consistently identify as the main barriers to attracting teachers to Cairns and surrounding communities like Mossman, Innisfail and Mareeba.
Local Schools Stretched Thin
Cairns State High School on Sheridan Street and Edge Hill State School have both run relief-teacher rosters for extended periods this year, sources with knowledge of the schools' operations confirmed. Edge Hill, which feeds students from the leafy suburbs west of the Cairns Botanic Gardens, has been managing a maths vacancy since Term 1. At Cairns State High, timetabling staff have been splitting classes and using year coordinators to cover gaps — a workaround that erodes planning time and puts pressure on the broader workforce.
James Cook University's Cairns campus on McGregor Road graduates roughly 80 education students per year through its Bachelor of Education program. The problem is retention, not production. A 2025 survey by the Queensland Teachers' Union found that 61 percent of newly registered teachers in regional Queensland left their first posting within three years, with housing costs and professional isolation cited most often. In Cairns, median weekly rent for a three-bedroom house hit $620 in June 2026, up from $490 in mid-2024 — a jump that has made the city increasingly difficult for entry-level public servants.
The Cairns Indigenous Education Consultative Body, which works with schools across the Mulgrave, Barron River and Cook electoral districts, has been pressing the Department of Education for a specific First Nations teacher pipeline since early 2025. The group argues that cultural safety in classrooms directly affects attendance rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, who make up approximately 22 percent of the Cairns region's school-aged population. Chronic understaffing disrupts those relationships hardest, because continuity of a trusted adult matters more than any individual lesson plan.
What Families Should Know Before Term Three
Parents with children in affected schools can formally request information about their child's class coverage through the department's regional office at 163 McLeod Street in the Cairns CBD. Schools are required under Queensland's Education (General Provisions) Act to notify parents when a class has been without a substantive teacher for more than 28 consecutive school days — though advocacy groups say that threshold is too high and compliance is inconsistently monitored.
The state government's Teach Queensland Remote Incentive Package currently offers allowances of up to $18,000 annually for teachers relocating to designated remote areas, but most Cairns schools do not qualify because the city's population sits above the program's eligibility threshold, even though local rental conditions rival those in officially classified remote zones. A cross-party push in the Legislative Assembly, backed by the member for Barron River, is attempting to amend those eligibility criteria before the budget deadline.
Term Three begins July 14. Parents concerned about specific class arrangements should contact their school's principal directly in the coming week. The Queensland Department of Education's regional office confirmed it is conducting a staffing audit across Cairns schools this week, with results expected to inform emergency recruitment rounds that close July 25. Whether those rounds attract enough applicants at this stage of the year is the question every principal in the city is sitting with right now.
