Are Teachers In Te Tai Tokerau Becoming Like The Moa – Extinct?

This is the question being asked by Te Tai Tokerau Principals’ President Brendon Morrissey

The mounting concern of TTPA Principals around the growing impossibility of ensuring safely staffing their schools resulted in a survey involving all 151 schools.

It is not just the lack of suitable applicants to permanent positions; it is the growing number of no applicants at all! It is about the fact that as well, the pool of day-to-day relievers is exhausted and schools increasingly have to take measures like sending students home as no teacher can be found!

Responses have come in from schools ranging in size, equity index, and include special schools and Kura Kaupapa Maori.

The Findings:-

23% of schools reported that they have had to employ Early Childhood trained teachers to help cover teaching shortages in their schools. One school reported that they had employed as many as 5 ECE trained teachers.

49% schools had reported they had used untrained teachers. (A LAT is an untrained person who has been only police vetted) One school reported that it had as many as 8 staff with LATs to help cover staff shortages.

64% of schools reported that they have had to disrupt learning at school this year, by splitting classes because they did not have enough staff.

93% of Principals reported that they have had to cover classes themselves and then having to carryout

their Principals role late into the night and weekends.

31% of these Principals have schools with a school roll of over 300, which means that they already have many staff but still have had to teach in the classroom.

TTPA President – Brendon Morrissey noted that accompanying these statistics were some personal narratives from Tumuaki, many of which related situations they are struggling to cope with. “I feel sad for our tamariki, whanau, communities and our profession.”

“ I am angry that our pleas for help continues to fall on deaf ears of governments. Rather than listen to our sector and action responses we know would work, successive governments including this one, have chosen to ignore our voice, a voice steeped in actual experience, not just number crunching. As a result they have made a profession one that no one wants to enter!”

“Are Teachers in Te Tai Tokerau becoming like the Moa – Extinct?” is no longer a question…it is reality… a reality that must be addressed urgently by this government and the first step would be to work with the profession instead of the constant demeaning we are getting from the Prime Minister to our Ministers of Education.

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