According to the NT Department of Education website, students in the Big Rivers region have started Term 1 with 20 classroom teacher jobs vacant.

Most notably, there are five vacancies at Kintore Street Specialist School, three at Katherine High School, three at Casuarina Street Primary School and three at the school in the remote community of Minyerri.

All but two of the vacancies have their start date listed as "ASAP."

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NT Branch Secretary for the Australian Education Union, Adam Lampe, said a lack of suitable and affordable housing was a major factor in stopping teachers from coming to Katherine.

He said the NT Government's decision to take away the rental subsidy for teachers in Katherine in 2019 was a "boneheaded" one.

"Because the accommodation shortage has led to high rents, of course the argument is why would you struggle to pay for a rental that's not that great when you could do as well or even better in Darwin or Alice Springs," Mr Lampe said.

"We'd like to see a subsidy reintroduced or some sort of allowance."

He also said the housing crisis in Katherine means teachers are unable to find housing at all.

"The agencies [used to] have its own allocation of housing, the Education Department would not technically own it but it was for teachers. [But], in the last few years, now housing is lumped into the whole of government so it can be seconded from whoever's got the biggest budgetary allocations from government," Mr Lampe said.

"You really need to have suitable accommodation available for teachers, you can't just say 'okay, find yourself a place to stay.'"

He said a general lack of planning has been a major disadvantage to places like Katherine.

"I don't think it's unfair to say the government has lacked forward workforce planning when it comes to education," Mr Lampe said.

"They have left Katherine high and dry with education.

"They're reaping what they have sewed."

An education department spokesperson said that there were no students without classroom teachers with contingency plans in place to cover current vacancies. This included combining classes with lower student numbers and redeploying registered teachers from regional offices to schools.

The spokesperson said that the department was working closely with schools to fill vacancies and it was a priority to get the right teachers into schools to deliver quality programs.

"There are currently 45 reported teacher vacancies across the Territory however, many of those have candidates progressing through final recruitment review and confirmation," the spokesperson said in a statement

The spokesperson said that findings and recommendations of an independent review into Katherine housing will be considered once it is finalised.

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