Primary Teacher Supply Crisis

August 31, 2007

Primary Teacher Supply Crisis

NZEI, Te Riu Roa, says there is a teacher supply crisis and the Department of Labour inclusion of primary school teachers amongst the top ten highest vacancy high-skill jobs comes as no surprise.

The Department’s newly released Skills in the Labour Market report for the June quarter warns employers to hold on to skilled staff by offering more attractive terms of employment or to risk loosing them in a tightening labour market.

The NZEI, which represents 27,000 primary teachers, is currently in negotiation with the Ministry of Education on a pay claim and NZEI President Irene Cooper says good pay and employment conditions are essential for the recruitment and retention of teachers.

“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 incentivise the movement of teachers overseas and we know, for example, that some 600 Kiwi teachers per year migrate to Queensland alone. The salary disparity must be addressed if we are to avoid losing teachers overseas, particularly to Australia,” she says.

Ms Cooper says principals have been reporting both a shortage of experienced teachers for permanent positions and capable relievers. She says the lessons of the 1990’s teacher supply crisis need to be remembered and the problem cannot be addressed simply by importing foreign trained teachers. That plugged a gap but it did not provide a sustainable solution and there is now a world–wide shortage of teachers.

She says the loss of graduates from the profession at a time of crisis in teacher supply is a pressing problem.

“It is a waste of both government and individual investment and it is of real concern that some 40 percent of graduates have not secured positions by the end of their first year out of Initial Teacher Education. We have long said that if we don’t get these graduates through to full registration, they are lost to the system and we simply can’t afford to loose them.”

Ms Cooper says the NZEI would like to see a ‘supernumerary scheme’, which allows schools to hire beginning teachers above the school’s teacher quota, introduced. While the Ministry has rejected this, when such a scheme was operated in 1989 almost all schools reported that they had benefited from the appointments which helped to reduce class size and to release of other teachers or teaching principals to undertake specific activities. The benefit for schools and the government are that New Zealand trained teachers are retained in the system rather than seeking alternative careers or overseas teaching positions.

Specific incentives are also needed, she says, to address the issue of graduates not wishing to move to specific areas of need.

“The current $3,000 payment in our view is an insufficient incentive and more should be offered to encourage South Island graduates to move to Auckland or other areas of need. Bonding could be considered to ensure a level of sustainability,” she says.

Ms Cooper says the crisis also suggests that teaching is not an occupation of choice.

“While Government acknowledges the critical role education plays in developing citizenry for the 21st century, schools likewise need to be learning institutions of the 21st century, properly supported with both resources and advisers, operating with quality working conditions in a high trust model so that teachers feel valued and want to remain in the profession.”

ENDS

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