UK schools poaching NZ teachers

BY JASON COLLIE and REBECCA WALSH

LONDON - British school principals are now so desperate for teachers they are travelling to New Zealand to poach staff.

Demand for teachers is taking on global dimensions as concerns mount over potential teacher shortages - particularly in the areas of maths, science and technology - in the next four to five years.

British schools are recruiting Australian, New Zealand and South African teachers and last year New Zealand Education Ministry representatives travelled to England in the hunt for staff.

The New Zealand secondary teachers union, the PPTA, predicts an extra 2500 teachers will be needed to cope with a peak in the secondary school roll in 2007. In Australia, teacher shortages are predicted to reach crisis point in 2005.

Simon and Kim Richards are two Auckland intermediate teachers who have joined the latest exodus, after head teachers from two schools in Basildon, near London, travelled Down Under on a recruiting drive last winter.

Sixteen teachers, wooed by better career prospects and higher wages, have since traded in careers in Australia and New Zealand for Essex's Fairhouse Junior School and Chalvedon School and Sixth Form College.

Mr and Mrs Richards, who have started their new jobs at Chalvedon and Fairhouse, respectively, decided that even with their son Conner aged only 15 months, the move to Britain would be worth it.

Mr Richards, a technology teacher who was at Panmure's Tamaki Intermediate, said: "The main reason we moved over here was the money.

"Both of us were working in New Zealand and we were just making ends meet after paying rent for a moderate two-bedroom flat, whereas here, for some reason, the same kind of rent gets us a three-bedroom house with a big backyard and we are able to save money.

"Back in New Zealand, the expectations were completely unrealistic for teachers. The workload was unrealistic and so was the paperwork, compared to the pay."

Over six years the couple had managed to save $20,000 in New Zealand, but now they are putting away £300 ($982) a week.

Irene Lynch, national manager of TeachNZ, said recruitment by British principals and agencies did not appear to be reflected by any increase in schools trying to fill vacancies here.

Vacancies were the lowest they had been for four years and the ministry was cautiously optimistic there would be no problems when school resumed at the end of this month.

But PPTA president Graeme Macann said he had grave concerns about staffing levels for this year. Particular areas of concern were low-decile and rural schools, along with the subject areas of maths and science.

He said a clearer picture would emerge in mid-February.