Urgent Action To Address Teacher Shortage Crisis

September 18, 2007

Call For Urgent Action To Address Teacher Shortage Crisis

The country’s largest education union NZEI Te Riu Roa says it’s time to stop talking about the primary teacher shortage and start looking at solutions for the sake of both children’s learning and teachers’ workload.

Principal groups in Auckland say the situation is at crisis point, particularly in South Auckland. Schools are doubling up classes, and some children are getting a different relieving teacher every day. The Ministry of Education says staffing is the tightest it has been since the late 1990s, partly due to significant roll growth in Auckland schools.

NZEI National President Irene Cooper says doubling up classes puts an unacceptable workload on teachers and is unfair on students. “Children only have one opportunity to learn at school and that learning is undermined when they face a passing parade of relievers.”

She says the Government must act urgently to address the situation.

“The experienced teachers that principals have been used to employing are no longer there. It’s a fact that the pool is just about dry. Experienced teachers do not “grow” overnight,” Irene Cooper says. “The government and the profession need to commit to supporting and developing the teacher workforce that it can recruit. That is beginning teachers, returning teachers and those recruited from overseas.”

40 percent of teacher graduates currently do not get jobs on completion of training which Ms Cooper says is a massive skills wastage. “They’re keen and well trained but they need schools who are willing to support them professionally for the first two years to full registration. We can head off this crisis but we must seize the initiative .”

NZEI wants better workforce planning and sufficient resources for experienced teachers to mentor and support beginning teachers and those teachers returning to school after a period out of the workforce. That would mean increased workloads for middle managers in schools which would need to be acknowledged.

Irene Cooper says the Government should move to introduce a scheme to ensure permanent positions for new graduates so they have the continuity of teaching, professional development, and proper support to achieve registration.

Latest figures from the Department of Labour put primary school teachers in the top ten list of high vacancy “high skill” jobs. This shortage is only predicted to get worse with the promised lowering of student ratios. Irene Cooper says “if we want the staffing improvements, then as a profession we must be prepared to put effort into building the profession. That means all of us working with the Ministry to rebuild capacity and rebuild the teaching pool we need to sustain quality public education.”

Better pay would also retain more teachers, Ms Cooper says.

”Salaries paid to New Zealand teachers are significantly behind teacher salaries in Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany and other countries. Our relatively low salaries help push teachers overseas. The salary disparity must be addressed if we are to avoid losing teachers overseas, particularly to Australia.”

She says the lessons of the 1990’s teacher supply crisis need to be remembered. “The problem cannot be addressed simply by importing foreign trained teachers. That plugged a gap but did not provide a sustainable solution.”

NZEI, which represents 27,000 primary teachers, is currently in negotiation with the Ministry of Education over a claim to resource a new career model for teachers and an increase in their base pay, both of which would assist in recruiting and retaining teachers, Ms Cooper says.

ENDS

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