Secondary schools facing 'worst ever' teacher shortage

New Zealand's secondary schools will be facing their worst ever teacher shortage when they open their doors for term one next year, says the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA).

The PPTA released a survey this week intended to gauge the likely level of staffing shortages at the start of school next year.

The survey's findings confirmed preliminary results released earlier this month that indicated that even if secondary schools filled all their current vacancies over the next eight weeks they could start 2003 up to 300 teachers short.

PPTA national president Jen McCutcheon told NZPA the teacher shortage was unprecedented. "It's the worst supply situation for secondary teachers that PPTA has ever seen and we keep pretty good records. It's a real worry."

Mrs McCutcheon said there were a number of reasons for the shortage including a "roll bulge" which had moved through primary schools during the nineties and was now appearing in secondary schools. She said the roll bulge would continue to move through secondary schools until 2007.

Other factors contributing to the shortage were aggressive recruitment here by overseas educators, due partly to a global teacher shortage, and the increasing numbers of foreign students attending New Zealand schools.

Secondary schools in Auckland faced a "massive problem" at the beginning of this year when rolls were 7000 students bigger than anticipated because of enrolments by students from overseas, Mrs McCutcheon said.

Teacher shortages had previously mainly affected lower decile and rural schools but now higher decile and urban schools were suffering.

"It's across the country and across all deciles. What's been happening is higher decile schools are attracting teachers from harder to staff schools, but higher decile schools are losing staff to private schools. So there's a general shift."

Teachers were lured to work in private schools by better pay and conditions she said.

"Principals are pretty despondent about this; it's creating a lot of uncertainty for them, they're identifying positions they simply won't be able to fill."

The Government announced secondary school recruitment measures last month such as using recruitment agencies and advertising to entice expatriate New Zealand teachers home from overseas, and a recruitment programme to target schools in Auckland with vacant positions.

But while Mrs McCutcheon welcomed those moves, she said today there were no answers to the looming shortage.

"The answers are things they (the Education Ministry) should have done five years ago when they saw the problem beginning, when they saw the role bulge beginning to move through."

- NZPA