Northland secondary schools get 1.3 teachers

Northland secondary schools will gain 22 more teachers from next year, but some principals say the boost is only scratching the surface of the problem.

The Government is spending $111 million on creating 460 teaching positions in the country's high schools to allow teachers more non-contact time.

Northland will receive 21.7 full-time equivalent teaching positions (including part-time positions) and if those positions are distributed evenly around the region's 17 secondary schools (including area schools), that would mean an extra 1.3 teaching positions for each school.

The chairman of the Northland Secondary Schools Principals Association, William Tailby, said the increase would mostly only catch up on a lack of teachers from the past two years created by the Government giving non-contact hours to teachers but not giving schools more teachers to compensate.