Teacher supply

Please attribute to Ellen MacGregor-Reid , Deputy Secretary Early Learning and Student Achievement, Ministry of Education;

Last year, our teacher demand and supply planning tool projections showed that if there was no additional intervention, we would need up to 850 additional teachers during 2019 to join our 70,000 strong teacher workforce.

In October 2018, the Government released an expanded teacher supply package to meet forecast the rising level of demand. This focused on meeting the immediate need through a blend of initiatives to increase supply of New Zealand trained teachers as well as provide a pool of qualified overseas trained teachers.

Our New Zealand trained teachers have been encouraged to return to and stay in our classrooms through 1,200 teachers enrolling in the Teacher Education Refresh programme, a range of scholarships, the use of the Voluntary Bonding Scheme, 230 National Beginning Teacher Grants allocated, and active marketing here and abroad. This sits alongside nearly 80 Teach First NZ participants starting in schools and 60 Beginning Teachers taking up roles through the Auckland Beginning Teacher Project.

The overseas recruitment campaign has resulted in nearly 1,000 qualified overseas teachers being screened and made available to schools for interviews. Of these 220 have so far accepted roles across New Zealand, which means we have sufficient candidates to be considered for the remaining lodged roles with our recruiters.

Within the 220 teaching roles accepted – 83 of these are secondary, 66% are STEM and 150 are based in Auckland.

Currently, our recruiters are working to fill 281 lodged roles, of which 152 are in Auckland. These 281 roles are for Term 1.

[Earlier press release: Still time for schools to access ongoing support]

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