A “dire shortage” of teachers has forced some Bay of Plenty high school principals to hire “unqualified” educators and one to cancel a class.
Those teachers held a Limited Authority to Teach (LAT), which the Teaching Council said enabled a person without a teaching qualification to teach in positions requiring specialist or hard-to-find skills.
It comes as teachers begin a new round of strikes, and after a Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) annual staffing survey found 48 per cent of 127 secondary principals nationwide had to appoint “untrained or unqualified” teachers because they could not find qualified or trained staff.
The Ministry of Education would not comment on the survey but said some subjects had long been hard to staff and nationally, the teaching workforce was in a “good position”.
The PPTA said a person cannot teach in a state school unless they were trained and qualified or had an LAT.
Of the principals surveyed, 30 per cent said they had to cancel or transfer classes because they could not find a specialist teacher - the highest proportion for a year since the survey series began in 1996.
The report also says the number of applications per teaching position was the “lowest on record”, while one-third of advertised jobs could not be filled.
Secondary and area school teachers were participating in rolling strikes this week as negotiations continue.
The strikes were going ahead despite the latest offer from the Ministry of Education, which the PPTA said sat below the cost of living increase. The ministry said the offer upped the maximum base salary for all teachers by 11.11 per cent to $100,000 by December 2024, up from $96,000 in its October offer.
Rotorua Girls’ High School principal Sarah Davis said the school had previously employed a staff member with relevant subject matter experience who held an LAT and was undergoing teacher training while working at the school.
Davis said 30 teachers from outside New Zealand had applied for two vacancies listed recently. No NZ-based teachers applied for either of the roles, she said.
“It’s definitely not the same fields of applicants we have had in the last two, three years.”
The school had hired two overseas teachers this year, with one yet to arrive as their visa had not been approved.
Davis said when positions opened up in the middle of the year, it was particularly “difficult” to find subject specialists.
At John Paul College, there had been “significant challenges” finding “suitable, qualified” staff to fill teaching vacancies, principal Justin Harper said.
Harper said in his view, there was a “dire shortage” of secondary teachers in New Zealand.
John Paul College had two vacancies that had been advertised “on multiple occasions”, he said.
There was a “common trend” of overseas candidates without teacher registrations or qualification recognition in New Zealand applying for roles, he said.
The report said the average number of New Zealand-trained applicants per classroom position was 1.6, compared to 3.4 in 2019 and 9.9 a decade ago.
It also reported that on average, one in every four principals had cancelled classes.
“I have had 12 years’ worth of senior leadership experience and I have never been in a school where I haven’t been able to fully staff that school.
“Rotorua is a major New Zealand urban centre with affordable housing and great lifestyle for children - we shouldn’t be struggling to find appointments,” Harper said.
He told the Rotorua Daily Post a physical education class had been cancelled due to the school not being able to find a specialist teacher to replace the one who resigned more than three months ago.
Harper said teaching was a career that could “make a huge difference in young people’s lives” but believed the “unappealing” pay rate put people off entering the profession.
“What I hope for is that the remuneration for teachers will be of a sort that would make Kiwi graduates at university consider doing a year’s further training to become a secondary school teacher.”
Rotorua Boys’ High School principal Chris Grinter said it was “getting harder” to appoint New Zealand-trained teachers to positions.
“At the same time, the number of applications for any teaching vacancy from overseas teachers is certainly increasing.”
The school was fully staffed and had not needed to cancel or transfer classes, Grinter said.
Tauranga Boys’ College principal Andrew Turner said since starting in the role last year, he had employed “three or four” staff who did not hold a teaching qualification.
They all held an LAT, he said.
While it was concerning there were not enough teachers, Turner said: “We have got to run our school.”
The PPTA said untrained and unqualified teachers appointed must have an LAT status.
The union’s Western Bay of Plenty regional chairwoman Julie Secker described the report findings as “very concerning”, believing it showed the secondary teacher shortage was becoming “more deep-seated and widespread”.
“Having to cancel classes because you don’t have a teacher is an absolute last resort, and to see that this is happening increasingly often is alarming.”
Tauranga Girls’ College principal Tara Kanji said the school had to recently advertise jobs multiple times before they were filled.
“This year is the worst, given that we have always been fully staffed and have always attracted a strong number of applicants.”
The school could access a great pool of relief teachers, but they, too, were “being stretched”.
When they could not find relief cover, Kanji said staff had to double up classes or have senior students work “independently” on set tasks.
“We check in on them,” she said.
In the survey, 91 per cent of principals said they had teachers who left the secondary teaching workforce between October and March, with retirement and career change the most common reasons given.
Ministry of Education general manager of employment relations Mark Williamson was unable to comment on the PPTA report.
He said, however, the ministry’s supply and demand modelling suggested the nationwide teaching workforce was in a “good position” to start the year.
Projections released in December estimated at the secondary level, supply was “expected to meet demand more closely in 2023″.
“We acknowledge that at a local level, some schools have challenges finding the right teachers for their school, particularly in subjects such as Stem and te reo Māori, where there have been long-standing systematic supply challenges.”
Williamson said in September Cabinet allocated $23.626 million to grow the workforce by up to 177 domestic teachers and 760 international teachers. This investment was “more heavily weighted” towards secondary teachers, he said.
He also said interest from overseas teachers remained high, with more than 1700 work and resident visas approved between January 2022 and April 2023.
In that period, more than 1000 overseas teachers arrived in New Zealand, including returning Kiwis and visa holders.
Thick black smoke can be seen across the city.