Despite about 40 teacher vacancies in Northland just three weeks from the start of the school year, two secondary principals are confident the positions at their schools will be filled.
With small increases in their 2009 rolls and several teaching positions available, the principals of Kamo and Tikipunga High Schools say they are looking good to start the year, and are just waiting for the right candidates to apply for the jobs.
The 40 vacant positions advertised on the Education Gazette website are for primary, secondary and area schools all over Northland.
Kaitaia College, with a roll of 820, was looking for seven teachers, ranging from a junior maths teacher to a head of department in both business and geography.
Three Northland schools - Dargaville High School, Ruawai College and Bream Bay College - were looking for food technology teachers, and several smaller primary school were advertising for teachers as well.
Bernie Taffs, of Kamo High School, said his predicted roll was up ``about 30 or 40' from last year, a challenge when new Ministry of Education regulations required no more than 26 students in a class.
He will return to school next week with the aim of filling four positions, one being head of technology, at a time when technology teachers are desperately sought-after nationwide.
"I'm confident we'll find the right person. I don't know why it's a difficult area to staff. It could be that the people who are trained in technology can earn better money actually doing the physical work rather than teaching it."
Kamo was also looking for another science teacher as "it's an expanding curriculum area," Mr Taffs said.
Several teachers applying for the positions had come from overseas, from Britain and the Pacific Islands.
The school's insistence on quality meant he would search for the right teacher to fit in with the Kamo team, Mr Taffs said.
It's looking positive at Tikipunga High School as well.
At this stage, principal Peter Garelja is looking at a roll increase of just "six or seven" pupils but "staffing-wise, we're just about right".
"There's a few little gaps, but we'll fill them.
"We've had applications and we're just waiting for the right people."
One position Mr Garelja is looking to fill is a carpentry teacher or tutor, to work with a group of six to eight pupils who will complete NCEA trades credits when they build a house this year on the school site.
Schools are required to submit predicted roll numbers to the Ministry of Education in October, as roll numbers determine the number of teachers and also number of classrooms a school is allocated.
If a roll increase is too small to warrant an extra teacher, but the school feels it needs one, they have to pay for one themselves out of their own budgets.
• Term One for primary schools begins from January 27, with most high schools returning from February 2.
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