Photo: Unsplash/ Taylor Flowe
Principals and teacher unions are disappointed an Education Ministry error meant it failed to forecast teacher shortages for 2024 and 2025.
They told RNZ schools were having to combine classes and cancel subjects due to the shortage which affected both primary and secondary schools.
The ministry on Friday forecast a 1250-teacher shortfall this year due to a combination of migration-driven enrolment growth and increases in teachers' non-contact time.
It contradicted the previous forecast, published at the end of 2023, which failed to account for the non-contact time changes that began last year.
The 2023 forecast predicted a surplus of primary teachers last year and a surplus in all sectors this year.
Principals Federation president Leanne Otene said the ministry's latest forecast was no surprise to principals.
Principals Federation president Leanne Otene. Photo: Supplied
"It validates what we have been saying - we have a shortage of teachers, both in primary and in secondary," she said.
Otene said the ministry's error in its previous forecast meant its figures did not match what schools were experiencing last year.
"Regions across the country have been telling the ministry there is a teacher supply issue and we shouldn't have had to do that. It should have been quite clear in 2023.
"Regions such as Northland and Southland expelled a lot of energy doing surveys with their schools and their communities and saying 'Look we've got a problem. We don't know why it doesn't match your data but we haven't got teachers in front of our classrooms and principals in our schools easily'," she said.
Leanne Otene said schools would do what they could to cope with the shortage.
She said they were recruiting from overseas, asking teachers to come out of retirement, and using Limited Authority to Teach permissions to allow people without teaching qualifications to teach.
Otene said Limited Authority to Teach was a last resort.
"That would be right at the bottom of my list. That's when you're in a crisis mode in a school where you might look to employ someone who's not a teacher and give them a Lat, Limited Authority to Teach but we may have no choice and in some communities that may be the only choice," she said.
She said teaching needed to be a more attractive career option and more effort was needed in teacher recruitment and retention.
Post Primary Teachers Association president, Chris Abercrombie said its members had told the union schools were feeling the effect of the shortage.
"They're getting larger classes, schools are cancelling some specialist areas, we're also getting non-specialists into specialist areas. You know I'm a history teacher, I might be teaching physics. Our part-timers are being asked to go full-time, relievers are being brought in... to teach full-time so they are no longer a reliever," he said.
Abercrombie said there had also been a significant increase in schools hiring people without teaching qualifications and using them in classrooms under Limited Authority to Teach.
He said some schools had been unable to find teachers for subjects such as Classics or History which meant some students were missing out on subjects that they wanted to learn.
Abercrombie said the shortage could have been avoided by improving teachers' pay and conditions and community support for teachers.
"We're in a collective bargaining round this year so it's an excellent opportunity for the government to effectively put their money where their mouth is and deal with this shortage," he said.
Abercrombie said the ministry's error in the 2023 forecast was disappointing.
"It does matter because last year they were predicting a surplus which didn't actually exist and when we were telling them, 'no that's not right', they go 'no our data said this' but their data was wrong because they hadn't taken into account stuff that had been negotiated by them with the sector.
"So it's really disappointing that occurred. It almost created some dead time in resolving this issue because they didn't regard it as a problem because their data didn't say it was a problem," he said.
Southland School Principals Association president and principal of Otautau School in Southland, Simon Bell, told RNZ the association challenged the ministry's previous forecast because its members were suffering shortages, not a surplus.
"Last year we pronounced it a crisis," he said.
Bell said some teachers were leaving the classroom to work for companies that were training teachers to use the new maths and English curriculums and that was likely to make the teacher shortage even worse.
The Educational Institute, Te Riu Roa, president Ripeka Lessels said teacher shortages were an ongoing pressure for primary schools and a major stress for school leaders.
She said the ministry's forecast only presented a partial picture of schools' staffing issues because it did not include day relievers, which all schools needed.
"The best way to solve teacher workforce shortages isn't rocket science: it's by valuing teachers, respecting their professionalism and paying them well - including paid practicums for teachers in training," she said.
"Critically, we also need to ensure teachers are well supported in their essential mahi by providing teacher aides and learning support specialists to meet the needs of the many tamariki who require these services in the course of their schooling."
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