More support for mentors of new teachers is needed to keep secondary teachers in the profession, says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president.

“The Government has made it easier for overseas trained teachers to come to New Zealand to try to address the teaching shortage. It’s difficult coming to an entirely new country with an entirely different curriculum and schooling system, so understandably these teachers require support. This support needs to come from experienced teachers, often the same teachers who are responsible for leading the implementation of the new curriculum and NCEA changes in their departments.”

A recent survey, carried out by PPTA Te Wehengarua, of establishing and overseas trained secondary teachers found that 90% of respondents agreed that mentoring had helped their development. Worryingly, almost 20% of respondents said they did not receive the right amount of mentoring during that time and almost 20% said they did not believe the mentoring they received was good quality.

“That’s why we are launching today a series of initiatives aimed at making the role of the mentor teacher better supported and recognised. These initiatives include the development of clear and detailed guidelines for mentors of teacher trainees, beginning teachers, overseas trained teachers and classroom specialist teachers.”

And in the upcoming collective agreement negotiations, PPTA Te Wehengarua will claim for:

Continued funding for the delivery of a highly successful professional development course in effective mentoring

An increase in the allowance received by teachers mentoring student teachers from $3 an hour to the minimum wage of $23 an hour

An increase to the unit and allowance payments which are paid to teachers in roles that include mentoring responsibilities.

“Secondary teaching is an amazing and hugely satisfying career. But it’s challenging, and teachers in their first five years of teaching in particular need a firm foundation of support to keep them grounded.”

Chris Abercrombie said both academic and anecdotal research showed that effective mentoring and support could ‘make or break’ an establishing teacher. “The quality of mentoring that teachers receive, particularly in their first few years in the profession, can have a significant influence on whether they stay in or leave teaching after their first few years.

“Retaining the experienced teachers that we need in the workforce to pick up these mentoring responsibilities is incredibly important. The largest number of teachers leave after five to 10 years in the profession, exactly the time when we need them to start mentoring new teachers.

“It’s appropriate that we are launching these initiatives at the Network of Establishing Teachers conference – as it is teachers such as these who we really need to keep in our schools. Everything that can be done, needs to be done, to support their professional growth.”

© Scoop Media