NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) president Angelo Gavrielatos had been meeting with regional teachers throughout the state all week to brief them on the union's campaign to address the chronic state-wide teacher shortage and its impact on public schools.

According to government figures which were released to Parliament last month, 81.4 per cent of schools in the Central West had vacant permanent teaching positions in October. The total number of vacant positions was 176.

In an impassioned speech to those gathered in the rain on Friday, Mr Gavrielatos also made reference to briefing notes from the NSW Department of Education which stated that the state "will run out of teachers in five years".

"The situation has become quite dire right across the state. We have teacher shortages from the inner west, to the far-west, north-west, south-west and the Central West. There was a time... when it was unbelievable and imaginable that there would be teacher shortages in Orange... and that is because of the circumstances in which we work and the decline in competitiveness with respect to the professional salary.... and a decline in working conditions," Mr Gavrielatos said.

Orange Teachers' Federation president Erin Green - a history and computer teacher at Orange High School - reiterated Mr Gavrielatos' sentiments.

"We deserve more than 'thanks' as teachers: We need better working conditions, we need to recruit teachers and we'd also like a pay rise in line with inflation," she said.

"Our students are suffering because they're not able to get quality education delivered due to these shortages.

"I know, from personal experience, people who have retired so burnt out... that they do not want to ever step foot on a school campus ever again because they are done with teaching - and that is where we get a lot of our [casual] teachers from - retired teachers."

Teachers were "exhausted" and "over-stretched", she added, with no work-life balance any more, which was having the flow-on effect of making their families suffer.

"Most of us teachers are highly particular about our careers - we're doing this for a reason, for the kids, and they're losing out," Ms Green said.

According to Department of Education documents released by NSWTF, three out of 10 teachers in the state are employed on a temporary or casual basis, and more than two-thirds of these people are early career teachers.

Mr Gavrielatos warned that without action, the shortage would grow and "country kids... will pay the price."

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