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Principals are calling for an overhaul of initial teacher education, because some newly qualified primary teachers are ill-prepared to teach basic subjects like reading and maths.

The Principals Federation, the Educational Institute, and the Normal and Model School Association told RNZ many new graduates had studied how to be a teacher for just one year and that was not enough.

They said recent Teaching Council changes to the requirements that teacher education courses must meet would help, but more needed to be done.

The Normal and Model School Association represented 29 schools specially funded to work with teacher education providers and their students. Its president, Stuart Armistead, said members were worried by what they were seeing.

"We have increasingly become concerned over the last seven years around the quality and the decline of initial teacher education," he said.

"What we're finding is that we need to be working with student teachers and, recently, beginning teachers around the basics of quality literacy and mathematics programmes. They're not being given the effective base to do what we'd consider the bread and butter of primary school education."

Armistead said the schools worked with about 1000 student teachers each year.

He said gaps in teachers' education meant schools had to do a lot of work to bring newly graduated teachers up to scratch, and it was more than some schools could cope with.

"For many, many schools the work that is needed to actually induct teachers and set them up for success is putting huge strain on experienced teachers, on school systems and it's almost the straw that broke the camel's back at the moment from what I'm hearing from the profession," he said.

Armistead said there had been an assumption that pitching teaching qualifications at the level of a master's degree would raise the quality of teachers, but that did not seem to be the case.

He said education providers might also need to be tougher about who they accepted into teaching courses and who they passed.

"Given what I'm hearing across the country, you would have to question whether there is enough rigour to the entry and exit standards," he said.

Armistead said there had been a lot of focus on recruiting enough people into teaching courses to meet demand, but it was time to shift the emphasis to quality.

Council of Deans of Education chair Mark Barrow said he did not agree that quality had fallen in teacher education.

"That is a misapprehension," he said.

"It's not what individual schools tell us when we work with them, and we work with them closely."

Barrow said aspiring primary teachers could study a three-year bachelor's degree or one-year postgraduate. However, the ideal would be two years of postgraduate study.

"If we look at some of the jurisdictions that we'd like to think that we could emulate, the Scandinavian countries in particular, that's the expectation, that it's actually a five-year preparation to get to be a teacher, not what we're doing here," he said.

Barrow said that would require more government funding, which was unlikely in the current climate.

He said the Teaching Council's new standards for teacher education courses should "fit like a glove" with schools' expectations, because they were developed in consultation with teachers and principals.

Barrow said new graduate teachers were mentored through their first two years of work before they could gain full registration and that period needed to be considered part of their training.

"The schools are right that the time that they spend in universities is not enough, but I do think we need to remember that it is a three-year programme that those students are entering and it's not until the principal or her delegate signs them off at the end of those two years that they become registered teachers, so I think that whole process needs to be thought about in total," he said.

However, Educational Institute president Liam Rutherford said the union was consistently hearing complaints about initial teacher education.

He said the institute and the Normal and Model School Association organised a recent meeting of principals' associations and teacher education providers to discuss the issue.

Rutherford said the NZEI was now consulting about potential areas for change, including stronger partnerships between the education providers and schools and early learning centres, better mentoring of new teachers, and whether there should be a national institute of teacher education.

He said teaching had become a lot more challenging and new graduates did not have the skills they needed.

"We are seeing such an increase in the number of students that are requiring additional needs and support and more often than not we are finding that our beginning teachers, because they are having typically much shorter initial teacher education programmes, don't come out ready to hit the ground running," he said.

"Behaviour management is definitely part of it, but it is also what we're seeing around the breadth of the curriculum and there seems to be the onus on schools themselves during their first couple of years to be doing a lot of the backfilling that's traditionally been done in teacher education."

He said part of the problem was many new teachers had not spent enough time studying how to teach.

"What we've seen happen over the last 10 to 15 years is the evolution of a lot of programmes that mean somebody can train to be a teacher within 12 months as opposed to some of the longer three-year programmes and I think we are seeing a lot of people in the sector starting to question whether or not one-year training is enough."

Rutherford said schools needed more funding so they could spend time mentoring and inducting new teachers into the profession.

Principals Association president Perry Rush said criticism of teacher education programmes had been building for years.

"We disestablished our Colleges of Education that had a good practice-based focus about 20, 25 years ago and over the course of that time increasingly we've seen challenges to the capability of our teaching workforce as they come into schools," he said.

Rush said many university-based programmes were too focused on theory and not enough on practice.

He said nobody was expecting new graduates to start work as fully-formed teachers, but too many were graduating with gaps in their knowledge.

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Principals want overhaul of initial teacher education

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Principals are calling for an overhaul of initial teacher education, because some newly qualified primary teachers are ill-prepared to teach basic subjects like reading and maths. The Principals Federation, the Educational Institute, and the Normal and Model School Association told RNZ many new graduates had studied how to be a teacher for just one year and that was not enough.

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A planned new on-the-job teacher training scheme has been delayed by a year as New Zealand's teacher shortage evaporates.

The latest Ministry of Education projections, released at 11am, show that the supply of primary teachers is expected to fully meet the demand this year and out to 2023, both nationally and in Auckland.

The shortfall of secondary teachers, which was expected to be 1750 by 2023 when the ministry's first projections were published in 2018, is now expected to be only 100, as New Zealanders come home from a Covid-ravaged world to retrain in teaching.

The Government has postponed a proposal, announced in 2019, to start a new on-the-job training scheme for 80 new secondary teachers a year from this year.

A notice on the government tenders site says the scheme, which was due to go to tender in the September quarter of last year, is still "awaiting approval".

Ministry deputy secretary Ellen MacGregor-Reid said the scheme will now start next year "and must have a focus on subjects and sectors facing teacher supply pressures such as the Māori medium sector, te reo Māori and STEM [science, technology, engineering, maths] subjects".

"It is expected that contracts will be confirmed early 2021, with the first students commencing the employment-based programmes no later than the beginning of 2022," she said.

"The start date of the new secondary EBITE ((Employment-based initial teacher education) programmes has been impacted as the wider education sector responded to Covid-19; we knew it was important that we took the time to collaborate and work with providers in this new programme."

Auckland University education dean Professor Mark Barrow, who chairs the national Council of Deans of Education, said any new programme would need Teaching Council approval and "would be struggling to get something going" even by next year.

The dramatic turnaround has been caused by several factors, all related to the global coronavirus pandemic:
Related articles
* The demand for teachers, especially in high-decile secondary schools, has been slashed by the closure of New Zealand's border, which has stopped overseas students entering the country since last March.

* The supply of teachers was boosted before the pandemic by a drive to recruit several thousand teachers from overseas.

* Although the border closure stopped overseas recruitment, the supply of teachers has been further boosted by New Zealanders returning from Covid-hit countries to either return to teaching here or to train in teaching.

Canterbury University education dean Professor Letitia Fickel said many Kiwis who were teaching English overseas have come home to train as mainstream teachers.

She also sees a dramatic leap in career-switchers whose high-tech jobs overseas have disappeared and who have come home to train in teaching - potentially relieving New Zealand's chronic shortage of teachers in maths, science and technology.

Canterbury's one-year post-graduate secondary teacher training enrolments have jumped from about 100 last year to 160, including a leap from about 20 to about 50 in maths, science and technology.

Barrow said Auckland's one-year post-graduate numbers have doubled overall, from 110 to 220 for primary teaching and from 150 to 280 in secondary. He does not yet have numbers for maths and science specialists.

"They are amazing figures, but in both cases, for reasons we don't really understand, 2020 was a low year," he said.

"So we are back at the same sort of numbers as in 2017 and 2018."

He said total numbers are up by about 15 per cent at Waikato, Massey and Victoria Universities.

The ministry projections continue to show growth in secondary student numbers offset by a slight decline in primary numbers out to 2026, as a small "baby blip" of children born around 2008-2009 move through the secondary system.

The demand for secondary teachers is expected to grow nationally from 27,140 this year to 28,650 by 2025, before starting to fall back to 28,540 in 2026.

In Auckland the demand is projected to grow from 7870 to 8330 before falling back to 8280.

However these numbers are all lower than the previous projections in 2019 because overseas students are not expected to start arriving again until next year, "returning to 2019 levels by 2025".

On the other hand the supply of teachers has been boosted by returning New Zealanders and fewer teachers leaving the country, so the shortfall of secondary teachers by 2023 has been slashed from 1750 to 100 nationally, and from 680 to 60 in Auckland.

The supply of primary teachers is projected to exactly equal the demand, both nationally and in Auckland, this year and in both the next two years.

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New on-the-job teacher training scheme delayed as staff shortage ends - NZ Herald

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A planned new on-the-job teacher training scheme has been delayed by a year as New Zealand's teacher shortage evaporates. The latest Ministry of Education projections, released at 11am, show that the supply of primary teachers is expected to fully meet the demand this year and out to 2023, both nationally and in Auckland.

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The Teaching Council is allowing hundreds of student teachers to graduate with less practical classroom experience than usual because the pandemic has disrupted their school and early childhood placements.

The council has reduced its minimum practical experience requirements by a quarter and is working with the Education Ministry on a special programme to help this year's graduates when they are in their first jobs next year.

The council's deputy chief executive, Pauline Barnes, said many students had not been able to complete the usual practical placements.

"One of the things that we discovered pretty quickly even before lockdown happened was that the schools and early childhood centres were busy trying to organise how they were going to respond to covid and so they asked if those students could be put on hold," she said.

"Obviously, when we went into lockdown many of those practical experiences had to be delayed."

She said student teachers on one or two-year courses could graduate with 10 weeks of practical experience rather than the usual requirement of 14 weeks, while those on three-year programmes would need at least 15 weeks instead of 20.

Barnes said 1200 to 1700 students would benefit from the changes and they would be eligible for a special induction programme to help them in their first year of teaching.

"Everybody that we've spoken to is pretty confident this is the right way to go," she said.

Students spoken to by RNZ said they did not have any information yet about the support programme and some felt poorly prepared for teaching next year.

"Right now we've only had about five weeks teaching actually in a school. Obviously it's very daunting only having that much time," one said.

"Many of us haven't had the opportunity to practice much teaching in the schools we were placed in because the teachers were racing to catch up on the lost lessons in time for exams," said another.

The chair of the Council of Deans of Education, Letitia Fickel from the University of Canterbury, said universities were confident their students would finish the year with enough experience to meet the council's new requirements.

"We are all in conversation about how we night have to react if we have to go back to a level three or four. But overall, at least within the university sector, we are ticking along with getting sufficient practicum and practice-based experiences for our candidates."

Principals Federation president Perry Rush said the lack of classroom time would not stop principals hiring new-graduate teachers.

However, he said the ministry's support programme for those teachers must not put extra responsibilities on their schools.

"It's absolutely vital that trainee teachers get time in schools to practice their craft, and so any loss of time as a consequence of Covid and the lockdowns, it's very important that that time is made up and there is sufficient resourcing to ensure that practice is occurring," he said.

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Trainee teachers lack classroom experience due to Covid-19

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The Teaching Council is allowing hundreds of student teachers to graduate with less practical classroom experience than usual because the pandemic has disrupted their school and early childhood placements. The council has reduced its minimum practical experience requirements by a quarter and is working with the Education Ministry on a special programme to help this year's graduates when they are in their first jobs next year.

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New Zealand is experiencing an explosion in trainee teachers, with many students joining courses after losing their jobs due to Covid-19.

Education qualifications are offered at seven of New Zealand's eight universities and all have recorded an increase in aspiring teachers.

In 2020, 2755 people began either a three-year teaching degree or a one-year master's programme, but this year the number has grown to 3583.

The country's largest teaching union has welcomed the news, but said the sector needed to ensure the new recruits were supported and did not quit after a few years due to burnout.

READ MORE:
* Lake Tekapo School's all male teaching staff
* South Canterbury teacher aides celebrate proposed pay rise
* On-the-job teacher training: the solution to the teacher crisis?

University of Waikato recorded the largest 2021 intake with 807 education students, while University of Otago (UO) had the greatest rise, from 204 in 2020 to 301 - a 47.5 per cent increase.

Among those studying at Otago's College of Education is Sarah Kay, who spent four years working as an Air New Zealand flight attendant before being made redundant last year.

The 30-year-old said although she loved her time in the skies, she was now looking forward to using her history and politics degree to teach secondary students.

She had been thinking about a career change, but said there were "lots of perks" of being a flight attendant, such as visiting exciting cities and "staying in cool hotels".

"I was just international, so (flew to) Japan, Hawaii, Buenos Aires, America, pretty much anywhere in the Pacific region."

A friend suggested she would make a good teacher, so she decided to apply just two days before the deadline.

Also hoping to bring his overseas adventures to the classroom is Wills Dobson, who worked in Antarctica as a NIWA technician.

The 32-year-old is studying a Master of Teaching and Learning at Victoria University of Wellington. He was planning to move to Canada when New Zealand's borders closed, forcing him to reassess his plans.

Having obtained a physics degree from University of Canterbury (UC), Dobson always envisaged becoming a science teacher, but the pandemic accelerated his plans.

"I really enjoy being in the classroom and really want to get into science and science communication," he said.

At UC, the number of new trainee teachers has risen from 538 in 2020, to 611 in 2021.

Cantabrian Dallas Mcilraith was working as a kitchen cleaner in the airline industry, but lost his job in August due to Covid-19.

He had a diploma in sport, recreation and exercise from New Zealand Institute of Sport and worked as a coach for Prebbleton Football Club, so decided to return to the classroom to become a PE teacher.

The 21-year-old is studying a bachelor of teaching and learning at UC's College of Education. He said although it had been an adjustment, he was enjoying the challenge.

"If anyone had asked me this time last year, it wouldn't have been something that would have gone through my mind happening in 2021."

Aucklander Lana MacFarlane was working as a singer on Cunard's cruise ships and sailed to Russia, Jordan and the Canary Islands.

She returned to New Zealand for a visit in February 2020, but the following month the borders closed.

"I realised that cruise ships were not going to be happening for a while."

The 30-year-old has a degree in musical theatre from the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art.

She is now studying a graduate diploma in teaching at Auckland University of Technology to becoming a drama, dance or music teacher.

Liam Rutherford, president of NZEI Te Riu Roa, said it was "great we've got such interest in people wanting to become teachers".

"You'll find that there are parts of Auckland where principals can't attract enough teachers to fill gaps," he said.

"The bottleneck tends to be around schools' ability to fund new staffing."

Newly qualified teachers needed to be given support to ensure they did not leave due to stress or excessive workloads, he said.

"The worst possible situation is when we bring new people into the profession and they are burnt out within a couple of years."

Phil Holstein, principal of Christchurch's Burnside High School and president of Canterbury and West Coast Secondary Principals' Association, said he was "heartened and encouraged" by the numbers choosing a career in teaching.

"Looking at the age profile of current teachers, I suggest that we do need new, fresh teachers to continue the great work that's going on already," he said.

"The key role that any school has is to look after, nurture and support our newest teachers and I know that all schools are doing their very best and have great programmes to do that."

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said he too was encouraged by the numbers.

"Teacher training isn't just available to recent school leavers and graduates, it's available for those looking to make a mid-career switch too," he said.

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Covid-19 sparks explosion in trainee teachers across the country

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New Zealand is experiencing an explosion in trainee teachers, with many students joining courses after losing their jobs due to Covid-19. Education qualifications are offered at seven of New Zealand's eight universities and all have recorded an increase in aspiring teachers.

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Principals want foreign teachers exempted from the border ban so they can plug staffing gaps caused by the teacher shortage. Foreign-trained teachers have been a key part of official efforts to relieve the shortage and last year nearly 1000 overseas teachers gained visas to work in New Zealand.
Secondary Principals Association president Deidre Shea says schools would normally be starting to look overseas now to fill some of next year's vacancies.

"Going forward into 2021 it's likely that we will need to employ folk from overseas in order to be sure that we get enough quality teachers into our schools."

"At the moment that's not possible and that's causing some concern in some areas, where for example jobs have been offered and accepted and of course people can't travel now."

She says principals are only now starting to raise their fears about the staffing situation and they would be asking for an exemption allowing foreign-trained teachers to enter the country to take up jobs.

However, Deidre says the pandemic could have positive effects on teacher supply.

"There's questions around retention of people in teaching, people perhaps returning to teaching, we have seen that before in times of recession, and whether indeed that will happen and if it does if those numbers are enough to mitigate some of the difficulties of getting folk in from overseas. So there's lots of unknowns, many more than there usually are."

Auckland Secondary Principals Association president Steve Hargreaves says the pandemic is also prompting more New Zealand teachers to return from overseas jobs.

"We at our school here advertised for an English teacher to start in term three, and two of the applicants we got were recent folks who'd come back from overseas.

"Trained teachers, had planned to stay overseas for much longer, the COVID situation looked much better in New Zealand so home they came and we have managed to secure a very good English teacher because of that."

However, Steve says nobody was sure how many New Zealand teachers might return and principals are worried about the likely lack of foreign teachers.

"I was at a meeting on Friday and there was some talk about 'gee what are we going to do next year?' because we all have been recruiting quite heavily from overseas in recent years and if that avenue is cut off we are a little bit worried about being able to fully staff our schools at the beginning of 2021."

Minister of Education Chris Hipkins reiterated the possibility of New Zealand teachers returning home, but acknowledged that was based on anecdotes and there was no data available now to support that assumption.

"New Zealand teachers are actually in very high demand around the world and they're very likely to want to come home in the current environment," Hipkins told RNZ's Morning Report.

"One of the challenges we've had is data has not been great on teacher supply, it's largely been left to schools to sort that out. We've compiled much better data now about a number of qualified and registered teachers we have in New Zealand, the number we think we're going to need in future years and the numbers coming out of training."

Hipkins says there was "no doubt there is a brewing shortage of secondary school teachers that we need to get on top of", but added that the projections suggested the shortage of primary school teachers peaked a year ago and was still a few years away for secondary school teachers.

"Schools have found ways to make things work even if they have had difficulties filling all of the vacancies they've had, and that's including just rearranging timetables and doing a variety of innovative things, in the worst case scenario they can use Te Kura - the correspondence school ... if they can't find a subject specialist teacher."

The ministry is focusing on recruiting new trainees, he says, but teachers are still going to have to find a way around the problem for another few years yet.

In the meantime, New Zealanders in the country whose registration had lapsed would also be provided with free refresher training if they wished to re-enter the field, he says.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins. File image/SunLive.
Border exemptions for teachers not ruled out - Hipkins
Auckland Primary Principals Association president Stephen Lethbridge says schools are in a staffing crisis and too few teachers are graduating from initial teacher education (ITE) programmes to fill their vacancies.

"There's some pretty low numbers of graduates graduating from ITE programmes and they are being snapped up really quickly in the mid-year intakes so the worry that schools have is how are we going to keep our children with teachers if we can't access overseas-trained teachers."

Stephen says it is possible that more New Zealand teachers would return because of the pandemic, but schools will still need foreign teachers.

"If we're looking for foreign teachers coming in, we would need to think about having something in place for the start of next year."

Hipkins says the government is looking at increasing the capacity of the quarantine system but gave no indication of when foreign teachers might be allowed in.

"At this point, the biggest constraint we've got is quarantine and managed isolation. We only have so many beds available and we know we've got a number of New Zealand citizens and residents wanting to return home, they've got a right to return home so naturally, they get the first priority for those beds that are available.

"There are a number of other groups that sit high on the priority list once we're through that and of course groups like teaching, where there are critical shortages, those are the sorts of groups that will be high on the priority list when we're in a position to be able to bring extra people in."

He told Morning Reporthe was not ruling out exemptions for teachers at this stage.

"The peak of our potentially incoming teachers wouldn't be until January, teachers are certainly high on priority list of people who are next on the returning list after citizens."
John Gerritsen/RNZ.

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Fears border closure will worsen teacher shortage

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Principals want foreign teachers exempted from the border ban so they can plug staffing gaps caused by the teacher shortage. Foreign-trained teachers have been a key part of official efforts to relieve the shortage and last year nearly 1000 overseas teachers gained visas to work in New Zealand.

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Flight attendant Melissa Ezekiela always knew she'd return to teaching one day - she just didn't expect it would be this year.
Like many other former teachers who have moved into different careers, the 40-year-old has found herself back in the classroom after being made redundant when the border closed in March.
It's something that has come as a blessing for the profession which has seen the pre-Covid teacher shortage reduce dramatically.
Ezekiela, who had been working as an Air New Zealand ...

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Deidre Shea: How the teacher shortage is dramatically reducing post Covid-19 - The Mike Hosking Breakfast

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Flight attendant Melissa Ezekiela always knew she'd return to teaching one day - she just didn't expect it would be this year. Like many other former teachers who have moved into different careers, the 40-year-old has found herself back in the classroom after being made redundant when the border closed in March.

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Concern about borders reopening

Shea said such solutions were short-term, and things were likely to get worse when the borders reopened, allowing New Zealand teachers to go overseas and foreign students to return.

"We're in a bit of a wee bubble at the moment. Clearly when things move to more frequent travel and communication between countries that will change again and so there's lots of unknowns around the future, particularly around the luxury that we have at the moment of not having such a big shortage of secondary teachers. It's not going to last."

She said schools had noticed more people returning to teaching this year.

"It's mainly because of the situation we find ourselves in with Covid with people having lost jobs in other areas who perhaps are trained teachers already and people coming back to New Zealand because we export teachers quite frequently."

But she warned schools needed a longer-term solution and that was an increase in trained secondary teachers in specific subject areas - te reo Māori, technology, maths, chemistry and physics.

The ministry's forecast said Auckland secondary schools would need 7870 secondary teachers this year and Steve Hargreaves from the Auckland Secondary Principals' Association said principals had told him that staffing their schools has been easier than in previous years.

But he was worried by the outlook for 2023, when more than 8000 teachers would be needed.

"It's a real concern. If we're 60 short then that probably means that we're having to find teachers who aren't best suited to be in front of students. We're having to cajole people to delay retirement; we're having to put non-specialists in front of classrooms and that's far from ideal," he said.

Hargreaves said even next year's relatively small shortage of 20 teachers would be a problem.

"My concern is that we see a number like 20 and we think that's not too many teachers that we need to find, but it will be a shortage of chemistry teachers, mathematics teachers and in critical subjects like that we've got schools that just can't find those teachers and therefore they're having to put non-teachers in or give up subjects completely," he said.

Bigger pool desirable

Hargreaves said schools should be able to choose from a bigger pool of teachers so they could put the best teachers in front of their students, but it was hard to encourage high-quality graduates to train as teachers.

"We just don't have those high-quality graduates training in sufficient numbers to staff our schools, particularly in mathematics, physics, chemistry, te reo Māori," he said.

"If you've graduated with a good mathematics degree or a good science degree the chances are you're not going teaching because the prospects elsewhere in other professions are much better."

He said his school was one of several training new teachers on-site with the University of Waikato and such programmes could help to increase the number of qualified teachers.

The ministry's deputy secretary early learning and student achievement, Ellen MacGregor-Reid, said the forecast for Auckland was a lot better than previous estimates and the pandemic had had an impact.

"Our forecasts have been positively affected in terms of demand and supply by both retention being high in the profession, so teachers remaining teaching, teachers not going offshore, Kiwis coming home, but equally we do not have the same level of international students in the country so that has reduced some of the demand for teachers," she said.

MacGregor-Reid said nationally and in Auckland primary school rolls were flattening or declining, while secondary school rolls were rising.

RNZ

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Auckland principals warn subjects will be cancelled if teacher shortage continues

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Shea said such solutions were short-term, and things were likely to get worse when the borders reopened, allowing New Zealand teachers to go overseas and foreign students to return. "We're in a bit of a wee bubble at the moment.

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The Ministry's teacher supply update for the 2021 school year has been released.

The Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Tool helps in the understanding and planning for the numbers of school teachers needed for our classrooms.

Taking into account the impact of COVID-19, it includes projections for any additional teachers needed by schools during 2021. It shows that overall there will be more teachers available to fill roles in classrooms.

For the primary sector, demand will be met by available supply from 2021 for at least three years. There remains an ongoing need to provide targeted support to help schools find primary teachers in certain locations, and kaiako for Māori medium.

For the secondary sector, 80 more secondary teachers may be needed during 2021, 30 teachers during 2022, and rising again to 100 teachers during 2023. There remains an ongoing need to grow the supply of secondary teachers, especially in hard-to-staff subjects such as te reo Māori and STEM and in certain locations.

COVID-19 has affected teacher supply in several ways and our current projections show this will continue in future years. We anticipate even higher teaching retention rates, more Initial Teacher Education (ITE) graduates, more qualified teachers interested in returning to the workforce (including those returning from overseas), and fewer international students resulting in reduced demand. On the other hand, our borders remain closed to overseas teachers.

We have observed significant growth in the teaching workforce in 2019 and so far in 2020. The total number of regular teachers increased by 905 in 2019 and is projected to increase by a further 1,100 by the end of this year.

There is a steady supply of school teachers, with 71,453 already in New Zealand classrooms. The vast majority of teachers are staying in the profession, with retention rates at above 90%. Estimates show these are set to increase with even more teachers staying in the profession in 2020. There are increasing numbers of teachers entering the workforce and fewer leaving, showing a trend
of a growing workforce.

In 2019, 6,445 teachers entered the workforce, at a rate of 9%; this is the highest it has been since 2010.

Of the teachers entering the workforce in 2019, the majority were new to teaching in New Zealand classrooms (3,929 or 61%).

Teaching is a strong, stable and growing profession which has always been highly regarded. With nearly 75% of New Zealand Year 7-10 teachers saying they would become teachers again, we are encouraging people to stay in or join teaching as their career of first choice. A significant investment has been made in improving pay, wellbeing and workload for school teachers in recent years.

Workload measures are progressing, most recently with the Teaching Council removing performance appraisals which should help reduce unnecessary workload. The Teaching Council has worked with Accord partners and other stakeholders to design and introduce a new Professional Growth Cycle fostering a high trust, low compliance, learning focused environment.

$16 million investment for a COVID-19 wellbeing package to benefit our educators and to increase their access to support services.

Settled collective agreements increasing teacher salaries - by 2021 most teachers will receive a pay rise of at least $12,000 when compared to the pay rates at the beginning of 2019. At least 23,500 (44%) experienced teachers will be able to earn at least $90,000.

Since December 2017, there has been a $135 million investment focused on getting New Zealand trained teachers to return to and stay in the profession and encouraging people to train as teachers, including support for career changers and a range of scholarships.

With our borders closed to overseas teachers, funding has been reallocated to bolster domestic teacher recruitment. This includes new targeted initiatives including relocation support for teachers, domestic recruitment support and more Teacher Education Refresh enrolments to help teachers return to or stay in the profession.

What we have done so far includes:

Continuing to subsidise teachers enrolled in Teacher Education Refresh to return to or stay in the profession (2,677 enrolments since January 2018)

Offering 1,294 scholarships to support people train as teachers

Supporting 1,253 teachers to relocate to New Zealand with the Overseas Relocation Grant

Supporting 285 beginning teachers into first roles with the National Beginning Teacher Induction Grant

Promoting teaching as career of choice through marketing campaigns

Expanding Teach First with their employment-based initial teacher education programme

Supporting schools hiring people with a limited authority to teach with 3R National Fund Payments

Expanding the Voluntary Bonding Scheme to attract new graduates to more lower decile schools in Auckland and hard-to-fill roles such as te reo Māori, Māori Medium and STEM

Setting targets with Tertiary Education Commission to increase secondary ITE enrolments.

Notes:
Full-year ITE enrolment data for 2020 will be available from April 2021.

The 2019 data for the number of domestic students enrolling in ITE for the first-time, showed:

First-time domestic students enrolling in an ITE qualification increased by 1.2% in 2019 compared to 2018, to reach 4,350. This was the result of an increase of 9.9% in ECE ITE students, while the number of primary ITE students decreased by 1.7% and the number of secondary ITE students decreased by 4.4%.

The Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Tool - 2020 results are available to view on the Education Counts website.

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Teacher Supply for the 2021 school year update

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The Ministry's teacher supply update for the 2021 school year has been released. The Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Tool helps in the understanding and planning for the numbers of school teachers needed for our classrooms. Taking into account the impact of COVID-19, it includes projections for any additional teachers needed by schools during 2021.

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This publication presents an updated set of results from the Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Tool.

Author(s): Ministry of Education

Date Published: November 2020

Summary

The Ministry's Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Tool ('the Tool') is constructed to forecast the number of teachers required by schools in the future, and to compare this with an estimate of how many teachers are projected to be employed by schools in the future. This is the third annual release of teacher demand and supply projections using the Tool.

The Summary Report contains the results from the Tool. A Technical Appendix providing a more complete guide to the methodology applied within the Tool is available alongside this report.

Key Findings

Covid-19 has increased the complexity in modelling of the outlook for teacher demand and supply in New Zealand. These projections are underpinned by assumptions based on trend information for key inputs (such as student numbers and teacher retention rates) and explicit modelling of the anticipated impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on these inputs in future.

The demand for secondary teachers is projected to grow year-on-year out to 2025. In contrast, the demand for primary teachers is projected to grow marginally in 2021, before dropping year-on-year in the longer term.

In both sectors, over the next few years we are anticipating even higher teacher retention, growth in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) graduate numbers due to increased enrolments, and - in particular in 2021 - a growth in the number of former teachers interested in returning to the workforce, partly driven by qualified teachers returning to live in New Zealand since the global outbreak of Covid-19.

For the secondary sector, we are projecting that supply will rise broadly in line with demand, leaving an estimated shortfall of 80 teachers in 2021, 30 teachers in 2022, and rising again to 100 teachers in 2023. We anticipate there will still be an ongoing need to grow the supply of secondary teachers to support schools in finding the teachers they need, especially in hard to staff subjects such as te reo Māori and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), in certain parts of the country and in the Māori medium sector.

For the primary sector, the modelling provides confidence that demand will be met by the available supply in 2021 and out to 2023. However, beneath this national outlook, we anticipate there will still be an ongoing need to help primary schools find teachers in certain parts of the country and in the Māori medium sector.

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This publication presents an updated set of results from the Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Tool. Author(s): Ministry of Education Date Published: November 2020 The Ministry's Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Tool ('the Tool') is constructed to forecast the number of teachers required by schools in the future, and to compare this with an estimate of how many teachers are projected to be employed by schools in the future.

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The Education Ministry is forecasting a shortfall of 30 secondary teachers in Auckland this year.

The city's principals have complained for several years that they are struggling to find good teachers.

The ministry said its latest projections showed demand for secondary teachers in Auckland would grow every year till 2025, but the demand for primary teachers would decrease every year to 2026.

"In both sectors, over the next few years we are anticipating even higher teacher retention, growth in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) graduate numbers due to increased enrolments, and in particular in 2021 a growth in the number of former teachers interested in returning to the workforce, partly driven by qualified teachers returning to live in New Zealand since the global outbreak of Covid-19."

The ministry said it expected demand for secondary teachers would rise roughly in line with supply and the city would be short 30 teachers this year, 20 teachers next year and 60 teachers in 2023.

It said the schools would need particular help finding teachers in hard-to-staff subjects such as maths, science and technology, and Māori medium teachers.

It said it was confident there would be enough primary school teachers to meet demand in the city over the next three years.

"However, beneath this high-level outlook for the Auckland region, we anticipate there will still be an ongoing need to help primary schools in the Māori medium sector find teachers, and to support individual schools where required," it said.

The Auckland figures were in line with national projections the ministry announced late last year.

At that time it forecast no shortage of primary teachers nationally, but a shortfall 80 secondary teachers this year, 30 teachers in 2022, and 100 teachers in 2023.

The figures for secondary teachers were an improvement on previous forecasts.

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Demand for secondary teachers in Auckland on the rise

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The Education Ministry is forecasting a shortfall of 30 secondary teachers in Auckland this year. The city's principals have complained for several years that they are struggling to find good teachers. The ministry said its latest projections showed demand for secondary teachers in Auckland would grow every year till 2025, but the demand for primary teachers would decrease every year to 2026.

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Massey University has had a record number of enrolments for its kura kaupapa teaching programme this year.

Combined enrolments for both Te Ao Paerewa, its one-year postgraduate programme, and Te Ao Taatairangi, its undergraduate Māori medium teaching courses, were up 133 percent on last year.

Programme co-ordinator Huia Janke cites a strong relationship with the kura kaupapa network for bringing in more students.

"The idea is to try and encourage kura to upskill teachers who are working on LATS, Limited Authority to Teach, so they're qualified in terms of their ability and strong te reo but they haven't been trained so this is one way that we can assist kura."

Janke said the remote teaching option was also attractive as students were able to remain in their rohe while studying.

Te Ao Paerewa, the one-year postgraduate course, was started in 2017 as part of a government initiative to increase the number of kura teachers to address the shortage.

However, there are four sessions which are a week long, and held at the Massey University campus in Palmerston North and students must pay for their own travel to and from those.

Janke said for the first three years of the course there was funding for food, travel and accommodation for these sessions, but this was no longer available.

"Training teachers is very, very expensive, it's labour intensive... and if we want to deliver a programme that's kaupapa Māori and in line with the philosophies we require increased kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face).

"It's a struggle but what it's meant was that we were more able to deliver the programme in line with a kaupapa Māori philosophy which was really about sending them to the central campus in Palmerston but we could also send our staff out to the rohe and have rohe hui."

She said whānau were encouraged to attend because they sit at the heart of the Māori education system.

"This is not just a profession and not just a job, it's a way of life and that's the whole philosophy behind the programme."

She said kura kaupapa teachers were expected to go to the likes of tangihanga and be involved with the wider Māori community.

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University hails record intake of kura kaupapa students

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Massey University has had a record number of enrolments for its kura kaupapa teaching programme this year. Combined enrolments for both Te Ao Paerewa, its one-year postgraduate programme, and Te Ao Taatairangi, its undergraduate Māori medium teaching courses, were up 133 percent on last year.

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Teacher shortages limit student achievement. Schools are forced to make compromises which reduce the quality of education for students

The 2018 Secondary School Staffing Survey Report shows a deteriorating trend. A number of measures in the report are the worst recorded by PPTA since the start of this series of reports.

2018 Secondary Staffing Survey report

Why we are facing a critical secondary teacher shortage

Declining relative salaries

Improved alternative employment prospects

Deteriorating working conditions

The secondary teaching workforce

The teaching workforce is ageing. Over 45 percent of secondary teachers are over 50. If that's you, we want to make sure that if you leave you are replaced by someone equally able and that if you choose to stay you can look forward to a long and productive career that closes with dignity.

There is a high rate of attrition among beginning secondary teachers. Just under half leave teaching within their first five years. Fewer beginning teachers are entering the profession.

There are not enough new teachers in subjects like physics and chemistry, technology, and mathematics. There are also significant shortages in subjects like business, Te Reo Māori, agriculture, horticulture and a number of languages. In some areas even English positions cannot be filled.

Why teachers leave teaching - contributing factors

Pay, workload, housing costs and a government committed to reducing spending on public services.

Fixed term, insecure appointments cause people to leave teaching, make the profession risky and unattractive and are often illegal.

Supporting secondary teaching careers

We're committed to making sure every teacher, from their very first position through to retirement, is well-supported and encouraged to reach their professional potential.

As a sector, we need to work together to develop new ways to support people with the skills we need into the profession. Things like scholarships for specialised subject areas would be a good start but we also need to increase salaries to a competitive level.

Value teaching, treat teachers with respect

Understand that teachers are dedicated to delivering the best outcomes for students, treat teaching and teachers with respect and value the work teachers do.

Recognise teachers are more than teaching labour units, that they, their whānau and communities have needs.

Pay teachers a salary which is competitive with other professions; give them a workload which does not force them into ill health. Make the job conditions attractive again.
Teacher Supply Working Group Report
Teacher supply working group
Some help to fix secondary teacher shortages (PPTA press release 13 December 2017)
As a result of the 2015 Secondary Teacher Collective Agreement (STCA) negotiations We've been working with the Ministry of Education, the School Trustees Association, the Secondary Principals' Council, the Secondary Principals' Association and the Education Council to identify what the teacher supply problems are and recommend solutions.

The Supply Working Group made 41 recommendations and we and some of the other groups made an additional 13 that weren't supported by the ministry.

Getting the ministry and the government to take action to address teacher supply issues in a long-term sustainable way is something we're still working on.
PPTA News November 2016
Government response - addressing teacher supply (13 December 2017)

Teacher supply package (Ministry of Education)

Teacher Supply Presentation - Melanie Webber at PPTA Annual Conference 2016

Article adapted from Teacher Supply Crisis, PPTA News November 2016.

Last modified on Friday, 17 August 2018 11:54

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New Zealand is experiencing a serious shortage of qualified secondary teachers. PPTA successfully called for a sector investigation into the teacher supply crisis and a number of potential solutions have been recommended. However, the Ministry of Education continues to rely on stop-gap recruitment of overseas teachers rather than working towards a long term sustainable solution to teacher supply.

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"Over the past three years, we have invested $135 million on a range of teacher supply initiatives, including recruiting teachers from overseas to plug the immediate gap. We also gave teachers the biggest pay rises in a decade to ensure that we have high quality teachers in our classrooms.

he workforce is estimated to grow by 1,100 teachers by the end of this year, which means around 3,000 more teachers since 2017. We saw more teachers entering and fewer leaving between 2017 and 2019, and the estimates for 2020 show a further decrease in teachers leaving the workforce. Many of these teachers are overseas trained teachers, and they have done a fantastic job supporting our children and young people.

"While this puts us in a good place for next year, we cannot afford to take our eye off the ball now. With our borders now closed to overseas teachers wanting to work in New Zealand, we are reprioritising funding to bolster domestic teacher recruitment.

240 more enrolments in the Teacher Education Refresh programme which helps teachers return to or stay in classrooms. This increases Ministry subsidised enrolments to 560 and there have already been 2,621 enrolments since January 2018.

150 Limited Authority to Teach places for schools hiring people without teaching qualifications to teach, where specialist skills are in short supply.

A new employment-based teaching course, giving up to 100 people the opportunity to gain a secondary teaching qualification while working as a teacher.

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"Over the past three years, we have invested $135 million on a range of teacher supply initiatives, including recruiting teachers from overseas to plug the immediate gap. We also gave teachers the biggest pay rises in a decade to ensure that we have high quality teachers in our classrooms. he workforce is estimated to grow by 1,100 teachers by the end of this year, which means around 3,000 more teachers since 2017.

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The Education Ministry has forecast an end to the teacher shortage for primary schools, but ongoing problems for secondary schools.

It said latest figures indicated the supply of secondary teachers would fall 80 teachers short of demand next year, 30 teachers short in 2022, and 100 teachers short in 2023 - figures that were an improvement on previous forecasts.

For primary schools the ministry said it expected there would be enough primary teachers to meet demand for the next three years, though schools in some locations and Māori-medium schools would continue to need help to recruit teachers.

It said the pandemic had affected the supply of teachers.

"We anticipate even higher teaching retention rates, more Initial Teacher Education (ITE) graduates, more qualified teachers interested in returning to the workforce (including those returning from overseas), and fewer international students resulting in reduced demand. On the other hand, our borders remain closed to overseas teachers," the ministry said.

The ministry's report noted that the demand for teachers was driven in part by schools hiring extra teachers using funds from their operating grants or from fundraising and foreign students.

"The projected level of secondary teacher supply in 2021 is sufficient to meet the projected demand for teachers from staffing entitlement (that is, the Ministry allocated funding to meet the required teacher-student ratios), but it is insufficient to meet the estimated level of demand for employing teachers above entitlement," it said.

"In 2022 and 2023, we now estimate that secondary teacher supply will rise broadly in line with demand, leaving a gap of 30 teachers in 2022 and 100 teachers by 2023. This is a significant shift from previous outlooks, which projected the level of demand for secondary teachers to rise faster than the level of teacher supply and result in a more considerable gap in the medium to long term."

The ministry's forecast said the demand for primary teachers was now expected to decline more than expected after 2023.

"Whilst we are not currently projecting supply beyond 2023, the continued decline in demand into out-years suggests we may continue to see fewer role opportunities arising for new or returning primary teachers. This may result in a situation at a national level where there are more qualified primary teachers looking for work in the sector than there are vacancies for."

The ministry's early learning and student achievement deputy secretary, Ellen MacGregor-Reid, told RNZ it would try to find the extra secondary teachers for next year by recruiting more people into courses that trained teachers while they worked in the classroom.

It would also work with the Virtual Learning Network, which allowed schools to share teachers over the internet.

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Ministry forecasts end to primary teacher shortage, but problems in secondary schools

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The Education Ministry has forecast an end to the teacher shortage for primary schools, but ongoing problems for secondary schools. It said latest figures indicated the supply of secondary teachers would fall 80 teachers short of demand next year, 30 teachers short in 2022, and 100 teachers short in 2023 - figures that were an improvement on previous forecasts.

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Kiwi teachers coming home from Covid-torn parts of the world have dramatically eased New Zealand's teacher shortage as the new school year starts this week.

The Ministry of Education says the number of teaching vacancies in primary and secondary schools dropped by a third from 349 last January to 233 last month.

Secondary Principals' Association president Deidre Shea said the staffing situation was "better than it's been for many years" - due to Kiwi teachers not going overseas, many returning and, ironically, jobs teaching overseas students that have evaporated because the border remains closed.

"A majority of secondary schools will have reduced their total staff for 2021 because of fewer international students," she said.

Her own school, Ōnehunga High School, has cut its teaching staff by six even though it usually has fewer than 40 long-term overseas students, because it normally hosts short-term study tours.

But it is also one of many schools that have gained from returning Kiwis, picking up music teacher James McCaffrey, who has come home from Japan with his partner, English teacher Anna Williams, who has got a job back at Glenfield College where she has taught before.

The couple went to Japan in December 2019 to teach English, and would have stayed overseas longer if it wasn't for Covid.

"We had briefly discussed somewhere in Scandinavia as a possibility," said Williams, 31.

Williams has a sister in Japan, who is married to a Japanese and has a family there, and the couple were looking forward to experiencing a different culture. But when all schools closed last February, they found themselves confined to their apartment in Tokushima on the island of Shikoku.

"It was very difficult to participate fully in the culture of Japan because everything had been cancelled," said McCaffrey, 38.
Related articles

Neither of them could speak Japanese, and when the borders closed they felt isolated.

"When you go away there is that idea at the back of your mind that if something goes wrong you can just come home. Having that taken away was really quite difficult, quite isolating," he said.

"We were isolated because it was very, very difficult to meet people, and it was very, very difficult to come home, so we were kind of stuck in this limbo."

They watched the NZ election results from Japan worried that a new government might shut even New Zealanders out. They came home in December.

Williams said: "There was a huge relief when we got on that plane to Auckland, just knowing we were not going to be stuck somewhere because there was constantly this underlying fear."

Shea said a survey at the end of the year found that 60 per cent of secondary schools were fully staffed for this year. The other 40 per cent had vacancies mainly in the always hard-to-staff subjects of te reo Māori, technology, maths, chemistry and physics.

The Education Gazette listed 271 teaching vacancies in schools on February 1, down from 370 on January 23 last year.

Only 60 of Auckland's 550 primary and secondary schools listed vacancies, or one in nine - down from 82, or one in seven, last year.

The Ministry of Education said the biggest gains were in secondary schools, where new vacancies listed in January plunged from 245 last year to 141 this year, including a drop from 83 to 45 in Auckland.

The improvement was less dramatic for primary schools, which do not generally have overseas students. New primary vacancies listed in January dropped from 104 last year to 92, but actually rose slightly from 27 to 28 in Auckland because of continued population growth.

Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Stephen Lethbridge said 50 out of 132 schools surveyed last week said they were more confident about staffing this year, 67 said the situation was unchanged and 14 said they were less confident this year.

"It's more buoyant," he said. "But there are pockets where we don't have enough teachers because people are not wanting to move or travel long distances on the motorways."

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Back to school: Teacher shortage almost solved thanks to returning Kiwis - NZ Herald

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Kiwi teachers coming home from Covid-torn parts of the world have dramatically eased New Zealand's teacher shortage as the new school year starts this week. The Ministry of Education says the number of teaching vacancies in primary and secondary schools dropped by a third from 349 last January to 233 last month.

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A new postgraduate scheme would see training teachers complete their studies while immersed in a school environment - for free.

Twelve Auckland secondary schools have been working with the University of Waikato on a new model of teacher education.

Headmaster of Westlake Boys David Ferguson, a spokesman for the 12-strong group, says the graduate qualification will see students based at one of the schools for the academic year, while completing their studies remotely.

"Historically, training teachers have spent more time at university than at a school," he told the Herald.

"We are really excited about this new model of teacher education. It not only enables student teachers to be fully immersed in a school-based environment, but also provides them with access to mentoring from specialist teachers in their chosen subject area."

Most teacher trainees have to pay their own fees like any other university student, but there are some scholarships on offer for Māori and Pacific students studying teaching.

Waikato University Pro Vice-Chancellor of Education, Professor Don Klinger, says the university is delighted to work with the schools to attract future teachers and address critical teacher shortages in secondary schools

"This unique opportunity uses our recently approved graduate and post-graduate diploma programmes," he said.

"It provides an enriched school context for a cohort of students to be immersed in while completing their teacher education programme."

Trainee teachers will have their course fees covered by the school they spend the year at, with the goal of offering the newly-qualified teachers a job once their study is completed.

Ferguson said students would be offered a small stipend during the year to support expenses and if a job becomes available, would stay at the school for a minimum of two years.

"And if there's no job available, they've earned the qualification anyway," he said.

It's hoped between one and three students will join each of the 12 schools in the pilot scheme, beginning next year.

The 12-strong group of schools include a range of co-ed, single sex, public and independent schools:

* Auckland Grammar School

* Baradene College of the Sacred Heart

* Diocesan School for Girls

* Macleans College

* Massey High School

* Mount Albert Grammar School

* Rangitoto College

* Sacred Heart College

* St Cuthbert's College

* St Peter's College

* Westlake Boys High School

* Westlake Girls High School

Investing in and getting the best possible teachers into the classroom was something all schools would be familiar with, Ferguson said.

"We're really interested in people who are changing careers, as well as graduates," he said.

"There is the potential for people who have done something else, but always had teaching at the back of their mind and thought about moving into teaching, but were unsure that could happen."

On top of their year of immersive learning, students will attend a day of learning at each of the 12 schools on different subjects, such as building a positive classroom environment, or assessments, as well as the opportunity of a further five-week placement at one of the other schools involved.

Students who successfully complete the qualification will gain a post-graduate or post-graduate diploma in teaching at the end of 2021.

Anyone interested in being part of this programme should contact one of the schools directly.

Immersive learning would build confidence: St Cuthbert's teacher

St Cuthbert's technology teacher Michael Zhang says the full immersion that the scheme offers students would make them feel more confident in taking on a teaching role.

Zhang, who has been teaching for five years this year, completed his postgraduate diploma in teaching at the University of Auckland.

"At the University of Auckland we had two practicums, in semester one and two so you'd get 12 weeks inside a school in your year of study," he told the Herald.

"Even with the 12 weeks, we always felt at the end of it: 'Am I ready for school?' I was competent to teach a class, but not confident in teaching multiple classes.

"This would be immersion as opposed to two practicums, so you'd get a greater breadth of knowledge of what a school is like, because you're stationed there."

With the schools covering the cost of fees for students, it would take away the financial stress some that might be holding back some people from switching careers, Zhang said.

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New scheme sees trainee teachers immersed in classroom - and fees covered - NZ Herald

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A new postgraduate scheme would see training teachers complete their studies while immersed in a school environment - for free. Twelve Auckland secondary schools have been working with the University of Waikato on a new model of teacher education.

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Trainee teachers will learn on the job from day one, as part of a pilot programme this year.

Instead of completing qualifications at universities before entering the classroom, 24 student teachers will spend a year gaining hands-on experience in classrooms at 12 secondary schools in Auckland.

The students will study papers though the University of Waikato at the same time as their practical learning. The schools will cover the costs of the trainee teachers' study and provide an allowance of about $10,000.

Trainee teacher Stacey Hughes will be immersed in the classroom at Sacred Heart College.

The opportunity to complete a diploma on school grounds instead of in lecture halls had sold it for her, she said. "To have a programme with an opportunity of being in front of students full time just made perfect sense to me."

She expected the workload would be heavy with practical learning and online study. "I believe my organisational skills will get me through," she said.

Westlake Boys High School on Auckland's North Shore has taken on three students to train on the job. They will be working in departments such as te reo Māori, performing arts, English, media, and social sciences.

Principal David Ferguson said a year of practical training would help the students slot into their first teaching job straight away.

"We're just hoping that by putting some time, effort and resource into supporting them with the initial training, it's going to mean that they're hopefully more likely to hit the ground running when they start in 2022," Ferguson said.
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"We probably have about 155 teachers at the moment, so we're always going to get some turnover," he said.

"We normally have a few vacancies at the end of the year, so that's why we are positive and hopeful that we're going to be able to offer them something."

Hopes programme will encourage more to teach

Students who have a university degree usually study for a year plus placements in schools for three months to gain a teaching qualification.

University of Waikato pro vice-chancellor of education Don Klinger said he hoped the pilot programme would encourage more people to become teachers.

"For the past several years, there's been a real shortage of teachers in secondary schools, especially in math, chemistry and physics, so this is an opportunity to enhance our ability to attract people to this fantastic profession," Klinger said.

The pilot programme could expand to other regions if it is successful.

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Student teachers to learn among the students in new pilot programme - NZ Herald

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Trainee teachers will learn on the job from day one, as part of a pilot programme this year. Instead of completing qualifications at universities before entering the classroom, 24 student teachers will spend a year gaining hands-on experience in classrooms at 12 secondary schools in Auckland.

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The loss of millions of dollars in fees from foreign students mean hundreds of jobs are at risk in the country's schools, universities and polytechnics.

There are only about 50,000 foreign students in the country, less than half the normal number, and school principals and university leaders have told RNZ there could be widespread job losses within months because they are expecting even fewer students next year.

The downturn has already cost more than 250 jobs at private tertiary institutions and language schools where hundreds more are dependent on applications to a government support fund.

However, nobody has a clear picture of how many jobs across the education sector are directly dependent on international students' fees.

The president of the secondary teachers' union, the Post Primary Teachers Association, Jack Boyle, said schools were starting to talk about redundancies.

"There was one school from the South Island where the principal said 'I'm looking at losing 15 staff'," he said.

"That's quite a big number. You'd expect that given that there are schools that might have 30 to 50 international students that the number would be lower than 15, you might be talking one or two, or in some cases half a dozen."

Boyle said the union was working with principals to persuade the government to stump up more money to save jobs.

The chairperson of the Schools International Education Business Association, Patrick Walsh, said the government had already provided money to protect the jobs of international student directors and home stay coordinators, but other jobs were still at risk.

"Many schools up and down the country have extra teaching staff generally to reduce class size and to provide a broader curriculum. Given that we won't have international students for some time, principals and boards of trustees are looking at whether they need to let these people go over time because they just can't sustain that financial burden," he said.

"Not only will it impact on those teachers themselves, but also the curriculum that's being offered in the school and maybe class sizes will have to increase as a result of it."

Walsh said he did not know how many teaching jobs might be lost.

Teacher redundancies not just in Auckland

Auckland secondary schools are the biggest enrollers of foreign students in the school sector, but a principal in another region told RNZ he expected every secondary school in his area would have to make at least one teacher redundant because of the loss of foreign students.

Universities New Zealand chairperson Derek McCormack said the eight universities lost $200 million in revenue this year mostly due to the fall in foreign enrolments, and they were expecting that figure to double next year if no new students were allowed into the country.

"This year was difficult but not as difficult as next year if we can't bring any international students from offshore," he said.

He said universities were expecting more domestic students in 2021, but they would still have to make cuts.

"We could end up in a situation where we have the same number of students as we would have expected, with the domestic students making up the losses of international students, but we would have significantly less income to do the same work," he said.

McCormack said universities had to approve their 2021 budgets by the end of December and it was hard to plan without knowing when foreign students would be allowed to return.

Some universities might decide to carry financial losses while they waited for the border to reopen, but it was likely they would have to lay off staff.

"There will be reduced staffing. Some of that may appear in the form of losses of otherwise secure positions, some of it may appear in the form of non-replacement or non-hiring of casual and short-term staff. So there'll be a mix of measures that might affect the total staffing of the university," he said.

Cuts at polytechs

Polytechnics were also expecting more domestic students, but a lot fewer foreign students and some were planning cuts as a result.

The Porirua and Wellington polytechnics, Whitireia and Weltec, had started consultation on closing their Auckland campus at the end of the year with the loss of more than 30 jobs.

The president of the Tertiary Education Union, Michael Gilchrist, said universities and polytechnics should not cut jobs because domestic enrolments would increase next year.

He said institutions were often too quick to make staff redundant.

"Staff are cut and two, three, four months down the track, perhaps six months, staff have to be re-employed because the cuts were not in fact well-judged," he said.

"That is the familiar pattern. We want to avoid that completely unnecessary pain and hardship that comes with making cuts prematurely."

Gilchrist said universities and polytechnics should run deficits next year to show the inadequacy of government funding.

"They need to do that to expose the extent to which international students have subsidised domestic provision," he said.

The chairperson of Independent Tertiary Education New Zealand, which represented hundreds of private tertiary institutions, Craig Musson, said its members had already laid off about 100 staff.

He said the organisation's members estimated they would lose a further 250 jobs because of the loss of foreign students but that would grow to 500 lay-offs if their applications to a government support fund failed.

English New Zealand, which represented the largest English language schools, said its members had so far made more than 150 staff redundant.

"In addition to that, schools shed many casuals and fixed term staff before redundancies, some staff have taken extended leave without pay while the border is closed, and others have moved on," it said.

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Cash-strapped education sector facing widespread job losses

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The loss of millions of dollars in fees from foreign students mean hundreds of jobs are at risk in the country's schools, universities and polytechnics. There are only about 50,000 foreign students in the country, less than half the normal number, and school principals and university leaders have told RNZ there could be widespread job losses within months because they are expecting even fewer students next year.

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Teachers flocking back to the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic will not be a silver bullet to shortages in the sector, the teachers' union has said.

Arrival card data shows around 800 teachers returned to New Zealand between April and August this year, more than any other profession. But primary teachers' union NZEI Te Riu Roa says it cannot be seen as a solution to chronic teacher shortages.

On Tuesday the union started two weeks of meetings, with union representatives from every school in New Zealand, as part of initial discussions in the lead up to collective agreement negotiations in 2022.

"What we've heard consistently from teachers and principals is a need for further staffing to be able to meet the needs of children," NZEI Te Riu Roa president Liam Rutherford said.

READ MORE:
* Early childhood teachers taking out loans to live, new study finds
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"We certainly have had people come back as a result of Covid, but what we are actually talking about is additional staffing coming into the education system to be able to meet the needs of children. It isn't just about being able to fill the current gaps."

Schools were calling out for teachers with specialist skill sets, and there were no guarantees teachers returning from overseas were going to fill those gaps.

Primary schools needed smaller classes, more teachers and more specialist learning support.

"It's that simple. These meetings will be focused on how we build a campaign to win the extra government funding we need to make that happen."

Wellington teacher and NZEI Te Riu Roa representative Carl Pynenburg said it was a privilege to work in the sector, but teachers were time poor, sometimes working from 8am to 8pm - or later.

"I think any teacher around the country could find an excuse to be working all the time. Sometimes it is time with your family that suffers because you are trying to give everything for your classroom."

A larger workforce would mean teachers could step out of the classroom for the day to do planning and non-contact work, and know they had a quality teacher stepping into their classroom.

Streamlining the process for kids with diverse learning needs to access the support they needed would also have a major effect.

"It is quite time-consuming, and really arduous. If someone could wave a magic wand and streamline that process, so kids could get the support they need faster, that would change the lives of so many children in New Zealand."

While teachers returning to the country was a positive, there needed to be good pathways in place to ensure they could get back into the classroom quickly.

In Auckland, Gladstone Primary School teacher Kahli Oliveira said teachers were finding it increasingly difficult to give each child the support they need.

"It's clear that schools across the country are stretched and it's the children who are at risk of missing out."

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Covid-19 teacher return no silver bullet for overstretched sector, says union

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Teachers flocking back to the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic will not be a silver bullet to shortages in the sector, the teachers' union has said. Arrival card data shows around 800 teachers returned to New Zealand between April and August this year, more than any other profession.

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Back on home soil - Teachers return to Aotearoa

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Holly Pears is another New Zealand-trained teacher who has returned home recently. Holly teaches at Fergusson Intermediate School in Upper Hutt, where she is also a specialist in Performing Arts. Holly had been further away than Matthew, having been teaching at an international school in Egypt (and the UK before that) prior to returning in mid-2019.

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Never Miss a Job

StaffSync will send you a notification the night before reminding you of the details of the job.

​Each job is loaded into your calendar with the time you are required, and helpful details like where to park and who to report to.

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Never Miss a Job StaffSync will send you a notification the night before reminding you of the details of the job. ​Each job is loaded into your calendar with the time you are required, and helpful details like where to park and who to report to.

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The school year begins with some primary and secondary schools struggling to fill teacher vacancies.
This is despite the latest information from the Ministry of Education suggesting there will be enough primary teachers to meet demand through to 2023, but acknowledging ongoing staffing issues for secondary schools. So what is the reality?. We crunch the numbers with Auckland Primary Principals Association President, Stephen Lethbridge and SPANZ President Deidre Shea.

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Back to school, but are there enough teachers?

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The school year begins with some primary and secondary schools struggling to fill teacher vacancies. This is despite the latest information from the Ministry of Education suggesting there will be enough primary teachers to meet demand through to 2023, but acknowledging ongoing staffing issues for secondary schools. So what is the reality?.

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Mid-year figures show schools in the Auckland region had 4113 more students than at the same time last year - resulting in the fastest growth in 17 years.

Education Ministry data showed the increase was the highest in the region's 1 July roll return since 2003 and followed five years of growth of between 2600-3600 per year.

The 2020 increase occurred despite the pandemic cutting more than 1000 foreign students from the city's tally and preventing new immigrants from entering the country.

Last week RNZ revealed the ministry is moving to introduce or amend 135 enrolment schemes in Auckland so it can better manage the city's growth.

The president of the Auckland Primary Principals' Association, Stephen Lethbridge, said schools in some areas had seen growth slow or stop this year, while others had experienced no let-up in their rapid expansion.

"With the borders being closed down immigration has slowed so therefore that growth has plateaued and in other regions where it's growing it's from people moving into new developments and shifting houses," he said.

Lethbridge said primary school principals were not reporting large numbers of returning New Zealanders.

"We've noticed in our place maybe three to four families coming back from overseas," he said.

Pressure on high schools expected

The president of the Auckland Secondary Principals' Association, Steve Hargreaves, said he was surprised by the figure given that the borders had been closed since early in the year.

He said returning New Zealanders could be behind secondary schools' share of the growth.

"They must be, certainly this half of the year, attached to Kiwi families returning home. So they're probably coming out of I guess the UK, Europe, possibly people with residency coming out of Asia, or South-East Asia as well," he said.

Hargreaves said the growth figure could be at the top end of forecasts for Auckland and it would put pressure on schools.

"That's going to have some flow-on consequences for staffing and school capacity and I think that's where we probably need to be a little concerned."

He said 4000 extra students would require about 200 more teachers and 20 more classrooms.

"You can't just produce trained teachers and classrooms on the spot. There's a lead-time to all of this and that's where I think some schools might start to bulge at the seams or struggle to cover classes," Hargreaves said.

Beating 2023 forecasts

The principal of Beach Haven School, Stephanie Thompson, said her school started growing quickly 18 months ago and currently had 100 more students than at the same time last year with a further 100 possible next year.

Thompson said the school had a roll of just over 460 and she did not know where it would stop.

"We had a demographics report completed by the ministry, we are already surpassing the 2023 predictions," she said.

She said the growth was coming from new Kainga Ora and private housing developments and but for the "Covid interruptus" effect of the pandemic, it would have been worse.

"If anything, the pandemic has slowed the growth in that these developments haven't been completed yet, so in a way that's given us a wee bit of breathing space to work with the ministry to get some property," she said.

Thompson said the school had to convert a former dental clinic on its site into a classroom because of this year's growth and though it needed four new classrooms it was getting only two next year.

"They won't be here until term two so I am hopeful the Kainga Ora development will just be a little bit slower to come online because I have a rush, I literally don't have anywhere to put children," she said.

An extra 300 students in a year

The principal of Ormiston Primary School, Heath McNeil, said there was growth nearly everywhere in Auckland.

"Out of the 20 catchments across Auckland, 18 have been designated as property and roll growth hot spots," he said.

McNeil said his own school had grown by about 300 students a year in the last couple of years and looked set to repeat that figure this year.

He said the school was struggling to find space for so many children.

But not all schools were seeing runaway growth.

The principal of Balmoral School in Mount Eden, Malcolm Milner, said there was no shortage of out-of-zone students wanting to join his school's intermediate classes, but the number of new children from within the neighbourhood was unexpectedly down.

"In my new entrants Year 1 class we've seen a big drop-off in the number of enrolments," he said.

"Normally we'd be up to between 80 and 90, I think we're running round about 45 to 50 this year so that's a big drop-off."

He said the fall might be because houses in the area were selling for millions of dollars and were out of reach of most families with small children.

Whatever the cause, it was not what he had been expecting.

"If you asked me to predict a trend two years ago I'd be having this graph going up, at the moment I've got this graph sort of plateauing or going down slightly. For me, without the deep knowledge of the demographics of the area I can't predict anything. There's no trend I can see at the moment," Milner said.

The ministry's figures showed Auckland's 1 July enrolment total had grown since 2014 by almost 19,508 children - nearly as many children as went to school in all of Taranaki, and more than all of Southland's schools combined.

Its plans for Auckland included a forecast that the city's schools would grow by 60,000 students between 2018 and 2030, requiring 30 new schools and the expansion of 21 others.

Growth a bit higher than rest of NZ - Ministry

Growth for Auckland in the last year was 1.4 percent compared with 1.1 percent for the rest of the country, Ministry of Education deputy secretary Katrina Casey said.

Auckland growth was higher for secondary schools (1.78 percent) compared with primary schools (0.91 percent).

However, growth in the city's primary schools was considerably stronger than nationally (0.27 percent) while secondary school growth was lower - 1.99 percent nationally.

Casey said in a statement that short-term growth numbers were in line with the ministry's projections.

"We continually work with schools to ensure they have the space they need and are as confident as we can be that schools in high-growth areas such as Auckland have the capacity.

"We regularly monitor and evaluate factors affecting schooling provision, such as school roll data, population projections, large-scale residential developments, infrastructure projects, and the impacts of Covid-19."

The primary measures the ministry used to help schools manage growth, included putting in place or changing existing enrolment schemes and building new teaching spaces, Casey said.

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'Schools might start to bulge at the seams' - Many Auckland schools under pressure

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Mid-year figures show schools in the Auckland region had 4113 more students than at the same time last year - resulting in the fastest growth in 17 years. Education Ministry data showed the increase was the highest in the region's 1 July roll return since 2003 and followed five years of growth of between 2600-3600 per year.

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The Education Ministry has revealed it is planning for mega schools for up to 4500 students.

It told RNZ its modelling indicated there could be secondary schools that size in high-growth areas by 2043.

"In these areas our modelling indicates school sizes by 2043 may approach 1000-1200 student places for a primary school, 1100-1200 student places for an intermediate school, and 3500 - 4500 student places for a secondary school," it said.

Auckland's Mount Albert Grammar School principal Patrick Drumm said his school of 3200 students would reach those figures by the end of the decade.

"The master planning we're doing here at Mount Albert Grammar is definitely for 4000," he said.

"We're growing at a 150 a year so we're going to hit those upper limits well ahead of 2043."

He estimated the school could reach 4000 within four or five years and said the school had already talked to ministry planners about growing to 4500 students.

Drumm said with good planning the school could personalise students' learning and ensure they had good relationships with their teachers and with one another, but it needed to reconsider its systems as it grew further.

"We've been looking around the world to try and find examples of big schools and how they function and what are the characteristics of them, rather than just walk blindly towards that number," he said.

"The question for me is do you just upscale another 30 percent until you get to 4000 in terms of those practices or is there a need to step back and gather expert advice around that, around how you may try to run a school at 4000."

Auckland's Rangitoto College is the only other school in New Zealand with more than 3000 students and the biggest in the country with 3250.

Its principal Patrick Gale said he did not want the school to get any bigger and the ministry would have to plan a school of 4000 very carefully.

"It's an interesting concept and I'm not sure how much research has gone into this. I'm aware that we are the largest school on a single site at least in Australasia and there are some schools in the states that may be bigger than us but it's not something that's being pushed as a model," Gale said.

"I understand the economic reasoning behind it from the ministry's point of view, but I think there's ways of planning quite carefully to ensure schools are not massive."

Gale said the ministry might want a big school to divide into junior and senior sections.

He said big schools needed clear systems for pastoral care, and could provide a lot of curriculum choices for students.

Burnside High School principal Phil Holstein said the Christchurch school was built in the 1970s as New Zealand's first super-sized school and now had 2500 students.

He said big schools had to be organised in a way that ensured students were not lost in the crowd and he urged caution over super-sized schools.

"I'd probably suggest as we did with Burnside that it's a trial first, see how it goes. I wouldn't be allowing all schools to do it at the same time."

Post Primary Teachers Association president Jack Boyle said the ministry needed to figure out if schools of 4500 were a good idea.

"There's a whole lot of work that needs to go in in the first instance to establish whether or not we should have schools of that size and if we do what sorts of things we need to have in place to make sure the learning experience for young people is what we want it to be."

The ministry said its modelling showed primary schools could reach 1200 children by 2043.

Just four primary schools had more than 900 pupils, including Finlayson Park School in Auckland.

The school's principal Shirley Maihi said it had more than 1000 pupils and 1200 was definitely too large.

"Quite frankly I think over 800 is far too many children in one space," she said.

"It's difficult when you've got a lot of younger children who seem to need more space for expansive activities - running and hopping and skipping and throwing balls," she said.

Maihi said she would prefer her school was smaller and the ministry should build more, smaller schools rather than one or two big ones.

The principal of another school of more than 900 children, Gladstone Primary in Auckland, Dave Shadbolt, said large primary schools needed sufficient space for all the children and good organisation.

He said his school was arranged into three mini-schools.

"As long as you think about how you organise the school within the school it can still function incredibly higher and as intimately as a little small school," he said.

Shadbolt said the school would finish the year with 970 pupils and he was not sure how much more it might grow.

"Possibly we'll go over 1000 in three or four years."

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Government planning for mega schools, but are they a good idea?

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The Education Ministry has revealed it is planning for mega schools for up to 4500 students. It told RNZ its modelling indicated there could be secondary schools that size in high-growth areas by 2043.

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Some rural schools are struggling to find enough teachers for next year.

Principals told RNZ it was hard enough attracting New Zealand teachers to jobs in the country, but this year they had the added complication of border restrictions that prevented them hiring staff from overseas.

Areas Schools Association president Stephen Beck said some rural schools could not attract a good selection of candidates for their vacancies, especially in specialist subjects like maths and science, and for senior primary school roles.

He said some north Canterbury area schools were planning to use online teaching for certain specialist subjects next year because they could not find teachers.

"It's mainly in areas like design and visual communication, ICT, computer technology, those type of courses where a course can be successful online. They're finding that is the only option for a number of their students, especially in that senior secondary area."

He said inability to recruit from overseas was creating a headache for some schools.

The principal of Greymouth High School, Andy England, said it usually relied heavily on foreign teachers because it was difficult to attract New Zealand-trained teachers to the West Coast, but that was not possible with the borders closed.

However, the school had managed to attract foreign teachers who had moved to the country several years ago and now wanted to live in the South Island.

"Typically we do a lot of recruitment from overseas, particularly in harder to staff subjects like maths and technology. This year we haven't been able to do that but we've seen more interest from Auckland, not so much the returning Kiwis. We were promised that we'd have interest from returning Kiwis, we haven't seen as much of that, mostly migrants from overseas who have been living around Auckland and are looking to move south," he said.

He said he felt lucky because the school had six vacancies for next year, including three for maths teachers, and had managed to fill five of them.

England said from conversations with other principals it appeared that fewer teachers were leaving West Coast schools, which was helpful, but they still wanted the government to allow foreign teachers through the border.

"I just can't rely on continuing to get lucky and I still have concern that closing off that international teacher market for us is quite short-sighted," he said.

"If you think about the New Zealand context, we're not training many technology teachers at all so if we have technology teachers retiring or leaving the profession we really need new technology teachers in," he said.

England said it was galling to see that teachers were not included in the professions that could cross the border, but low-skilled fruit-pickers were.

Traci Liddall from Otorohanga College says she had been trying to find a head of maths all year.

"We have advertised five times in the year that I've been here for a head of department, maths, and we have not been able to appoint anybody," she said.

Liddall said the school had an acting head of maths, but it really needed a permanent appointee in the position.

"It's critical. Maths is a keystone subject area and it's critical that we have somebody who can lead the change that's needing to happen in the school but also knows their subject inside and out," she said.

Liddall said the school had received some applications, but most were from overseas teachers who knew nothing about the NCEA system, and the few local applicants did not have enough experience or could not teach beyond their subject area.

She said the school nearly ran into the same problem with a science vacancy, which it was lucky to fill late last year with a teacher returning from overseas.

"It was pretty touch and go, she was the only one we interviewed," she said.

Liddall said teachers often did not realise that a rural school could be good for career advancement.

"Three or four years here with us will give you a really good grounding to move on to bigger things," she said.

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Rural schools look to online classes as they struggle to hire teachers

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Some rural schools are struggling to find enough teachers for next year. Principals told RNZ it was hard enough attracting New Zealand teachers to jobs in the country, but this year they had the added complication of border restrictions that prevented them hiring staff from overseas.

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Chief executives aren't leading the country's brain gain, new data about the occupations of returning New Zealanders shows.

Airport arrival cards showed teachers topped the list of 115 occupations, followed by engineering professionals in the five months from April.

That's good news for the education sector, which hopes a long-running teacher shortage is finally over.

High school science teacher Simon Grimmer is about to be counted among the growing number of returning New Zealanders in his profession - he is home for good in December after teaching abroad for 13 years.

Speaking from his home in northern Thailand, Grimmer said the decision to return with his wife and two sons was not made lightly.

"The long term economic outlook in northern Thailand isn't great, coronavirus isn't going anywhere in a hurry. It's very likely to re-emerge in Asia and particularly in Thailand," Grimmer said.

"What's drawing us back is aging parents and the need to establish an identity in my two sons. I'd like them to establish themselves as New Zealanders, they've never lived in New Zealand."

And it will be a proper homecoming - Grimmer is returning to teach science at the high school he attended as a teenager - Mahurangi College in Warkworth.

But leaving behind a comfortable salary that allows his family to take holidays and save on a single income will be bittersweet.

"We're very aware that the cost of living in the area that we'll be living and renting, we'll be struggling to make ends meet on a single salary. We do have the intention of having two salaries to support our family," he said.

"It may be that our experiment with living in New Zealand doesn't work out and we do need to return abroad for financial reasons but we wouldn't be doing that in a rush. It would be a five to 10 year thought process."

Of the 41,800 people entering the country between April and the end of August, more than over half - 27,351 - were returning Kiwis using a New Zealand passport.

Nearly two-thirds stated their occupation, showing the overall trends.

Teachers topped the list at 800, followed by engineering professionals.

Grimmer said he knew of at least one other teacher who has just returned to New Zealand.

"With the coronavirus New Zealand is increasingly becoming a bastion of safety, it's a safe haven and people are hopeful to return there. Perhaps the proportion of New Zealanders in the international school world is quite high too."

He doubted whether those returning would help to prop up the economy.

The occupation data also showed almost 100 more labourers than chief executives returned.

Stats NZ senior demographer Kim Dunstan said this is the first time they have collated occupation information of those entering the country - a more manageable task with smaller numbers crossing the border.

"It's interesting to see that occupations such as teachers are the largest single occupation group among returning New Zealand citizens but the occupations are spread across the whole spectrum."

He said the Ministry of Education was among the government departments interested in returning New Zealanders' occupations, as it assesses the effects of Covid-19 on teacher supply.

"We know that there is some general interest in the composition of migrant arrivals since the border restrictions in March. A number of government agencies are looking to plan their labour needs over the coming months and years and are taking an interest in the occupational composition of migrant arrivals."

A ministry spokesperson said it expects more teachers will come home, while those in classrooms stayed on and qualified teachers returned to the profession.

Principal optimistic

In East Auckland's Bucklands Beach, Macleans College employs 172 teachers and its principal, Steven Hargreaves, is president of the Auckland Secondary Principals' Association.

He said returning New Zealand teachers will be a major source of professionals to fill vacancies for next year.

"We've lost the opportunity for recruiting teachers from overseas ... but we think that will be more than made up for by the New Zealanders who have fled back to New Zealand because of the Covid outbreak."

Hargreaves said principals were snapping up returnee teachers and there were also fewer vacancies.

"There's very little movement. Normally by this time of the year many teachers have come and told me they're going overseas or they're retiring. I've only had one of those conversations and for a school of this size that's most unusual. We're actually going to see teachers hunkering down and not moving because of the uncertainty that is out there."

Before the country's first case of Covid was reported, the Ministry said it needed 800 to 900 more teachers this year - roughly the same number who have already returned from overseas.

Although only a quarter of those returning said they planned to stay long term, closed borders and opportunities here may have changed their minds.

Grimmer and his family have booked managed isolation for the two weeks before Christmas and hope to complete it in time to spend the festive season with family.

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High hopes homebound teachers will fill vacancies

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Chief executives aren't leading the country's brain gain, new data about the occupations of returning New Zealanders shows. Airport arrival cards showed teachers topped the list of 115 occupations, followed by engineering professionals in the five months from April. That's good news for the education sector, which hopes a long-running teacher shortage is finally over.

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The Teaching Council has developed an enhanced induction and mentoring programme for beginning teachers who have been impacted by COVID-19.

The programme provides additional support for beginning teachers who have had reduced practical experience during their initial teacher education as a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns.

The programme will be delivered nationwide by the University of Auckland and is fully funded by the Ministry of Education. More information about the programme and eligibility requirements can be found on the University of Auckland's website and the Teaching Council's website.

To be eligible for the programme, beginning teachers must:

have completed their initial teacher education (ITE) qualification in 2020

have completed their ITE qualification using the Teaching Council's temporary reduced practical experience requirements; and

be a registered teacher employed in a long-term teaching role in an early learning service, school or kura.

Eligible beginning teachers can enrol in the programme at: Enhanced Induction and Mentoring Programme - University of Auckland.

If you're a beginning teacher and not sure if you're eligible or have any questions, please call the Teaching Council on +64 (0) 4 471 0852

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Extra support for beginning teachers impacted by COVID-19

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The Teaching Council has developed an enhanced induction and mentoring programme for beginning teachers who have been impacted by COVID-19. The programme provides additional support for beginning teachers who have had reduced practical experience during their initial teacher education as a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns.

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Education and Training Act 2020: Changes related to the Teaching Council

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Under the Education Act 1989, a teacher needed to demonstrate satisfactory recent teaching experience to have their practising certificate renewed by the Teaching Council.

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You can contact the Teaching Council and ask us if you're eligible for the programme. Alternatively, please talk to your initial teacher education provider to find out if your programme used the temporary 25% reduction in practical experience requirements. Initial teacher education providers delivered all sorts of 'alternative practical experiences' during 2020, and some of these experiences will count towards your practical experience requirements. Please note that if you are eligible, you'll still need to be registered and employed in a teaching job before being able to enrol and participate in the programme.
Is the programme compulsory?
No. However, the Teaching Council strongly encourages you to enrol if you are eligible. The programme is designed to provide you with helpful additional support for the start of your teaching career. The programme doesn't cost you or your employer anything, and doesn't require extra administrative work.
I'm working part-time/relieving, can I still enrol?
Yes! To enrol in the programme and get the most out of it, participants need to be regularly teaching in a consistent context. This might be a full-time role in one learning setting, a part-time role in one learning setting, or long-term relieving in a consistent learning setting.
I don't have a work-based teacher mentor, can I still enrol?
You can. If you're employed full-time in a teaching position you're entitled to have a teacher mentor assigned to you. However, if you don't have a work-based mentor yet, but are otherwise eligible, you can still enrol and complete the enhanced induction and mentoring programme.
I am participating in the University of Otago's professional learning and development (PLD) to support Provisionally Certificated Teachers (PCTs), can I still enrol?
Yes you can. The University of Otago programme is available to all PCTs working in schools, to support them through to full certification. The program also provides support for school-based mentors to ensure new teachers receive high quality induction and mentoring. The enhanced induction and mentoring programme is specifically for people who graduated from their initial teacher education programme in 2020, using the reduced practicum requirements adopted by the Teaching Council in response to the COVID 19 pandemic.
I'm employed in a non-qualified role at an ECE centre (even though I'm a registered teacher), can I still enrol?
Yes - as long as you're registered with the Teaching Council. We know times are still really tough in the ECE sector and that you might have chosen to take an 'unqualified' role. Because you're a trained teacher, we know you'll still be using your teaching skills and knowledge at work, even if your job title is 'unqualified'. For this reason, you're still eligible for the programme and can enrol.
Why do only some 2020 teaching graduates get access to this course? We were all affected by COVID-19!
We were definitely all affected by COVID-19, but New Zealand's initial teacher education programmes were affected differently depending on lots of factors for example, location, programme design, education sector, timetables, and local schools and centres' unique contexts. Providers worked hard to give student teachers as much valuable practical experience as was possible in their programmes, but it was not the same for everyone.

Some programmes needed to take advantage of the Teaching Council's temporary 25% reduction in practical experience requirements. This meant those student teachers missed out on experiences other 2020 student teachers received and the enhanced induction and mentoring programme is intended to offset some of these discrepancies.
I'm not teaching in Auckland - how will the University of Auckland deliver the programme for me?
The University of Auckland (UoA) is the lead provider of the enhanced induction and mentoring programme. However, the programme is accessible anywhere in New Zealand. UoA will work with New Zealand's other universities to arrange a mentor close to where you're teaching. Each university has been allocated regions in which to provide the enhanced induction and mentoring programme. The university responsible for your region will make contact when they receive your enrolment.
Is the programme linked to my practising certificate or teacher registration?
No. If you've successfully completed your initial teacher education and been granted teacher registration and a practising certificate, the Teaching Council considers you qualified to begin teaching in New Zealand. There are no conditions related to the enhanced induction and mentoring programme.
If I do the enhanced induction and mentoring programme, do I still need to do 'normal' induction and mentoring too?
Yes. In order to progress from a provisional practising certificate to a full practicing certificate, you'll still need to successfully complete two years of induction and mentoring. The enhanced induction and mentoring programme is an extra opportunity on top of this standard induction and mentoring.
Will teachers participating in the programme be assessed or graded?
No. The programme is intended to support the reflection and professional growth that you should already be doing as a teacher. Teachers won't be given a grade and there is no pass/fail assessment.
Can I enrol in the programme later in 2021 if I don't have a teaching position at the start of the year?
Yes, we will be accepting enrolments throughout the year.

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FAQS: Enhanced induction and mentoring for 2020 grads

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You can contact the Teaching Council and ask us if you're eligible for the programme. Alternatively, please talk to your initial teacher education provider to find out if your programme used the temporary 25% reduction in practical experience requirements.

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The Teaching Council is allowing hundreds of student teachers to graduate with less practical classroom experience than usual because the pandemic has disrupted their school and early childhood placements.

The council has reduced its minimum practical experience requirements by a quarter and is working with the Education Ministry on a special programme to help this year's graduates when they are in their first jobs next year.

The council's deputy chief executive, Pauline Barnes, said many students had not been able to complete the usual practical placements.

"One of the things that we discovered pretty quickly even before lockdown happened was that the schools and early childhood centres were busy trying to organise how they were going to respond to covid and so they asked if those students could be put on hold," she said.

"Obviously, when we went into lockdown many of those practical experiences had to be delayed."

She said student teachers on one or two-year courses could graduate with 10 weeks of practical experience rather than the usual requirement of 14 weeks, while those on three-year programmes would need at least 15 weeks instead of 20.

Barnes said 1200 to 1700 students would benefit from the changes and they would be eligible for a special induction programme to help them in their first year of teaching.

"Everybody that we've spoken to is pretty confident this is the right way to go," she said.

Students spoken to by RNZ said they did not have any information yet about the support programme and some felt poorly prepared for teaching next year.

"Right now we've only had about five weeks teaching actually in a school. Obviously it's very daunting only having that much time," one said.

"Many of us haven't had the opportunity to practice much teaching in the schools we were placed in because the teachers were racing to catch up on the lost lessons in time for exams," said another.

The chair of the Council of Deans of Education, Letitia Fickel from the University of Canterbury, said universities were confident their students would finish the year with enough experience to meet the council's new requirements.

"We are all in conversation about how we night have to react if we have to go back to a level three or four. But overall, at least within the university sector, we are ticking along with getting sufficient practicum and practice-based experiences for our candidates."

Principals Federation president Perry Rush said the lack of classroom time would not stop principals hiring new-graduate teachers.

However, he said the ministry's support programme for those teachers must not put extra responsibilities on their schools.

"It's absolutely vital that trainee teachers get time in schools to practice their craft, and so any loss of time as a consequence of Covid and the lockdowns, it's very important that that time is made up and there is sufficient resourcing to ensure that practice is occurring," he said.

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Trainee teachers lack classroom experience due to Covid-19

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The Teaching Council is allowing hundreds of student teachers to graduate with less practical classroom experience than usual because the pandemic has disrupted their school and early childhood placements. The council has reduced its minimum practical experience requirements by a quarter and is working with the Education Ministry on a special programme to help this year's graduates when they are in their first jobs next year.

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Some high schools are under mounting pressure to cut jobs, as they grapple with staff funding decreases amid plunging international student numbers, secondary principals warn.

The Secondary Principals' Association New Zealand (SPANZ) said a reduction in Ministry of Education staff funding to more than 1000 schools added up to "extreme pressure on staffing" at schools where international student rolls were continuing to fall.

SPANZ vice president Scott Haines said the ministry had reduced the guaranteed minimum staffing level entitlement at 1112 of the country's 2421 schools, based on domestic student roll projections.

The ministry said 138 secondary schools were among the 1112. The average decrease in entitlement staffing across those schools was 1.4 full time teacher equivalents.

It said 1,035 schools would receive an increase to entitlement, with its calculations showing 290 extra teachers were needed across-the-board for 2021. Another 274 would see no change.

Haines said the entitlement moves came as uncertainty about any further relief for schools for next year caused sleepless nights for many secondary principals, struggling to balance the books for 2021 because of international student fee losses.

READ MORE:
* Budget cuts and job losses loom for education sector if overseas students blocked
* Cash injection 'not a solution' for international student losses
* Schools fear job cuts without timeline for return of international students

"This is absolutely crunch time.

"Some schools will burn through reserves next year and keep staff on, others don't have that luxury."

SPANZ was grateful for the Government's relief package for schools for 2020, Haines said.

But some schools didn't have enough cash reserves to meet potential redundancy costs, with staff able to choose up to 40 paid weeks of retraining if they were made redundant, he said.

"Some further support will be required for next year, to avoid many staff losses in our sector."

Nayland College in Nelson was expecting six international students at the start of 2021, compared to about 80 pre Covid-19.

Principal Daniel Wilson said the school had culled classes for international students in English as a second language, other languages and outdoor education.

Wilson was talking to the school board about how to restructure the school's operations, through measures like reducing admin support, and didn't yet know if that would mean job losses or re-allocation of duties.

Some losses could potentially be covered by the school's growing domestic roll, he said.

Nelson College headmaster Richard Dykes said his school couldn't sustain staffing levels.

The matter was under discussion at the school, and it would be premature to talk about which jobs were at risk, he said.

Nelson College was expecting around 35 international students in 2021 - about half its normal number - with current fee losses totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A slight reduction in the school's staff funding entitlement from the ministry "didn't help", Dykes said.

International student fees funded things like smaller classes and equity programmes in schools, he said.

"If the Government is intending to do a similar payment to what it did this year, then now would be the time to tell us."

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said some schools, like many other organisations, would "unfortunately have to make tough decisions as a result of the loss of revenue".

"The $20m of funding for state and state-integrated schools was so schools could keep supporting the education and wellbeing of international students still in the country by continuing to employ staff working with international students," Hipkins said.

"The funding is for the remainder of 2020 as schools transition to a lower future income stream.

"It is not intended to reimburse schools or cover their losses as a result of lost international student revenue."

The ministry said work was still underway to get a clear understanding of international student numbers in New Zealand.

Katrina Casey, the ministry's deputy secretary of sector enablement and support, said the calculation of schools' provisional staffing entitlement was only based on domestic student rolls.

A school's guaranteed minimum staffing level could be adjusted upwards during the year if the school roll significantly increased.

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Schools poised to cut jobs as international student fees dry up

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Some high schools are under mounting pressure to cut jobs, as they grapple with staff funding decreases amid plunging international student numbers, secondary principals warn. The Secondary Principals' Association New Zealand (SPANZ) said a reduction in Ministry of Education staff funding to more than 1000 schools added up to "extreme pressure on staffing" at schools where international student rolls were continuing to fall.

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New Zealand's schools may be close to being fully staffed in 2021.

That's thanks to Covid-19, with fewer international students reducing demand, coupled with higher retention rates, more graduates entering New Zealand's workforce and teachers retuning from overseas.

The Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Tool, released by the Ministry of Education on Thursday, found there should be enough teachers to staff primary schools until 2023.

For the secondary sector, the shortfallwas expected to be around 80 for 2021, a significant drop from the anticipated 520 teacher shortage originally predicted.That drops to 30 in 2022, then growing to 100 in 2023.

READ MORE:
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* Schools worry that camps may soon be a thing of the past
* Budget 2019: Government pours $95 million over four years into teaching resources
* Teacher training numbers up at Massey University and around the country

The numbers are a national overview, with the ministry predicting it will still be difficult to staff schools in some areas, as well kaiako (leadership roles) in the Māori medium sector and for STEM subjects.

NZEI Te Riu Roa president Liam Rutherford said the survey did not align with what he was hearing on the ground.

"It isn't enough to have the right number of people in the system, its actually about people with the right experience, in the right part of the country, at the right time."

The numbers were based on the system "standing still", he said.

"What we know from teachers, principals and parents around the country, is there is just not enough teachers in the system to meet the workload requirements of teachers and principals, but also the needs of children."

Small schools in rural areas were one place it was hard to attract staff, as were areas with high living costs.

The ministry's early learning and student achievement deputy secretary, Ellen MacGregor-Reid, said while the news was positive, the ministry would not be taking its eye off the ball when it came to staffing schools.

She said the data was a national snapshot, and there would be areas which were harder to staff.

The ministry was working on an Auckland specific supply and demand planning tool, expected to be released later this year.

The country had about 3000 more teachers than three years ago, and many were returning from overseas as a result of Covid-19.

The principal at Auckland's Newmarket Primary School, Wendy Kofoed​, said she had recently advertised a role, and received five applications. Just two years ago she would likely have received 70-80 applications for the same job.

Some of her teachers had to travel an hour and a half to get to work in the morning, due to the expense of living in the city.

Wellington teacher Carl Pynenburg said he had been forced out of Auckland due to affordability. He was now starting to see the same issues hit young teachers working in the capital.

The news that teacher supply was expected to match demand in the primary sector was good news, but he wanted to see the ministry help teachers returning from overseas to quickly get re-certified and back in the classroom.

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Fewer international students and higher teacher retention means New Zealand is expected to be just 80 teachers short in 2021

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New Zealand's schools may be close to being fully staffed in 2021. That's thanks to Covid-19, with fewer international students reducing demand, coupled with higher retention rates, more graduates entering New Zealand's workforce and teachers retuning from overseas.

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High school science teacher Simon Grimmer is about to be counted among the growing number of returning New Zealanders in his profession - he is home for good in December after teaching abroad for 13 years.

Speaking from his home in northern Thailand, Grimmer said the decision to return with his wife and two sons was not made lightly.

"The long term economic outlook in northern Thailand isn't great, coronavirus isn't going anywhere in a hurry. It's very likely to re-emerge in Asia and particularly in Thailand," Grimmer said.

"What's drawing us back is aging parents and the need to establish an identity in my two sons. I'd like them to establish themselves as New Zealanders, they've never lived in New Zealand."

And it will be a proper homecoming - Grimmer is returning to teach science at the high school he attended as a teenager - Mahurangi College in Warkworth.

But leaving behind a comfortable salary that allows his family to take holidays and save on a single income will be bittersweet.

"We're very aware that the cost of living in the area that we'll be living and renting, we'll be struggling to make ends meet on a single salary. We do have the intention of having two salaries to support our family," he said.

"It may be that our experiment with living in New Zealand doesn't work out and we do need to return abroad for financial reasons but we wouldn't be doing that in a rush. It would be a five to 10 year thought process."

Of the 41,800 people entering the country between April and the end of August, more than over half - 27,351 - were returning Kiwis using a New Zealand passport.

Nearly two-thirds stated their occupation, showing the overall trends.

Teachers topped the list at 800, followed by engineering professionals.

Grimmer said he knew of at least one other teacher who has just returned to New Zealand.

"With the coronavirus New Zealand is increasingly becoming a bastion of safety, it's a safe haven and people are hopeful to return there. Perhaps the proportion of New Zealanders in the international school world is quite high too."

He doubted whether those returning would help to prop up the economy.

The occupation data also showed almost 100 more labourers than chief executives returned.

Stats NZ senior demographer Kim Dunstan said this is the first time they have collated occupation information of those entering the country - a more manageable task with smaller numbers crossing the border.

"It's interesting to see that occupations such as teachers are the largest single occupation group among returning New Zealand citizens but the occupations are spread across the whole spectrum."

He said the Ministry of Education was among the government departments interested in returning New Zealanders' occupations, as it assesses the effects of Covid-19 on teacher supply.

"We know that there is some general interest in the composition of migrant arrivals since the border restrictions in March. A number of government agencies are looking to plan their labour needs over the coming months and years and are taking an interest in the occupational composition of migrant arrivals."

A ministry spokesperson said it expects more teachers will come home, while those in classrooms stayed on and qualified teachers returned to the profession.

Principal optimistic

In East Auckland's Bucklands Beach, Macleans College employs 172 teachers and its principal, Steven Hargreaves, is president of the Auckland Secondary Principals' Association.

He said returning New Zealand teachers will be a major source of professionals to fill vacancies for next year.

"We've lost the opportunity for recruiting teachers from overseas ... but we think that will be more than made up for by the New Zealanders who have fled back to New Zealand because of the Covid outbreak."

Hargreaves said principals were snapping up returnee teachers and there were also fewer vacancies.

"There's very little movement. Normally by this time of the year many teachers have come and told me they're going overseas or they're retiring. I've only had one of those conversations and for a school of this size that's most unusual. We're actually going to see teachers hunkering down and not moving because of the uncertainty that is out there."

Before the country's first case of Covid was reported, the Ministry said it needed 800 to 900 more teachers this year - roughly the same number who have already returned from overseas.

Although only a quarter of those returning said they planned to stay long term, closed borders and opportunities here may have changed their minds.

Grimmer and his family have booked managed isolation for the two weeks before Christmas and hope to complete it in time to spend the festive season with family.

RNZ

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COVID-19: High hopes Kiwi teachers returning to New Zealand will fill vacancies

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High school science teacher Simon Grimmer is about to be counted among the growing number of returning New Zealanders in his profession - he is home for good in December after teaching abroad for 13 years. Speaking from his home in northern Thailand, Grimmer said the decision to return with his wife and two sons was not made lightly.

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The Education Ministry has forecast an end to the teacher shortage for primary schools, but ongoing problems for secondary schools.

It said latest figures indicated the supply of secondary teachers would fall 80 teachers short of demand next year, 30 teachers short in 2022, and 100 teachers short in 2023 - figures that were an improvement on previous forecasts.

For primary schools the ministry said it expected there would be enough primary teachers to meet demand for the next three years, though schools in some locations and Māori-medium schools would continue to need help to recruit teachers.

It said the pandemic had affected the supply of teachers.

"We anticipate even higher teaching retention rates, more Initial Teacher Education (ITE) graduates, more qualified teachers interested in returning to the workforce (including those returning from overseas), and fewer international students resulting in reduced demand. On the other hand, our borders remain closed to overseas teachers," the ministry said.

The ministry's report noted that the demand for teachers was driven in part by schools hiring extra teachers using funds from their operating grants or from fundraising and foreign students.

"The projected level of secondary teacher supply in 2021 is sufficient to meet the projected demand for teachers from staffing entitlement (that is, the Ministry allocated funding to meet the required teacher-student ratios), but it is insufficient to meet the estimated level of demand for employing teachers above entitlement," it said.

"In 2022 and 2023, we now estimate that secondary teacher supply will rise broadly in line with demand, leaving a gap of 30 teachers in 2022 and 100 teachers by 2023. This is a significant shift from previous outlooks, which projected the level of demand for secondary teachers to rise faster than the level of teacher supply and result in a more considerable gap in the medium to long term."

The ministry's forecast said the demand for primary teachers was now expected to decline more than expected after 2023.

"Whilst we are not currently projecting supply beyond 2023, the continued decline in demand into out-years suggests we may continue to see fewer role opportunities arising for new or returning primary teachers. This may result in a situation at a national level where there are more qualified primary teachers looking for work in the sector than there are vacancies for."

The ministry's early learning and student achievement deputy secretary, Ellen MacGregor-Reid, told RNZ it would try to find the extra secondary teachers for next year by recruiting more people into courses that trained teachers while they worked in the classroom.

It would also work with the Virtual Learning Network, which allowed schools to share teachers over the internet.

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Ministry forecasts end to primary teacher shortage, but problems in secondary schools

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The Education Ministry has forecast an end to the teacher shortage for primary schools, but ongoing problems for secondary schools. It said latest figures indicated the supply of secondary teachers would fall 80 teachers short of demand next year, 30 teachers short in 2022, and 100 teachers short in 2023 - figures that were an improvement on previous forecasts.

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Schools in Nelson have had a surge in applications for teaching jobs from teachers returning from overseas.

Hampden Street School principal Don McLean said he was surprised to receive between 40-50 applications for six jobs advertised in September, many from experienced teachers.

It was a noticeable "switch around" from last year, when the school received about 35 applications, dominated by people new to teaching, he said.

"I definitely think it's related to the current [Covid-19] situation," McLean said.

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Some applicants had returned from overseas, while others had been planning to go abroad and couldn't, or were coming home from other parts of the country, he said.

At Nayland School in Stoke, nearly 50 people applied for four positions.

Principal Janice Gulbransen said they included teachers not yet in the country, and those who had come back to New Zealand earlier than planned, because of Covid-19.

People returning from overseas made up most of the 17 or so applicants for a new entrants' teaching position in July, she said.

That compared to six applications for a position at the same time last year.

Motueka High School principal John Prestidge said his school had received more interest from expatriate New Zealand teachers after recently advertising two positions.

"[But] the challenge for us it to maintain the quality staff we've got."

The school was among many secondary schools trying to balance the books for 2021, with plummeting income from international students.

Motueka High School was budgeting for no international students next year, instead of around 45.

Prestidge expected the lost fees to be buffered over the next six to 12 months by factors including a roll increase, and the school's strong financial position.

"After that, if we are in a situation where we can't have any international students at all in 2021 or 2022, then we'll be in a different position, unless our roll grows massively."

The New Zealand Principals' Federation had not heard of a trend of rising applications for school jobs in other regions.

President Perry Rush said the applicant numbers reported from the Nelson primary schools were "quite extraordinary", with a "tight job market" anticipated for teachers.

"We've had international students significantly reduced in number as a consequence of the border measures, so we do have a question around the potential redeployment of staff that have been employed by schools.

"We do have staff that are looking around, and that is adding to the numbers in the job market."

Generally the numbers of applicants were "very low", with people tending to hold onto their positions in times of international crisis, Rush said.

Nelson had always been viewed as a desirable place to live and teach, and that could be attracting a higher percentage of returnees, he said.

A clearer picture would emerge of what was happening nationally, after the school holidays ended in two weeks.

"We're just coming into the time of the year, where schools have their staffing provisions for next year provided by the Ministry [of Education]," Rush said.

"Schools will have advertised over this break, and those adverts will be still coming, and we'll start to see the numbers as term four begins."

The Ministry of Education said it was updating data on teacher demand and supply to reflect new trends, but teacher retention was high.

More school teachers were entering the workforce and fewer leaving, with more teachers staying at the same schools.

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Spike in teacher job applications in Nelson linked to Covid-19

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Schools in Nelson have had a surge in applications for teaching jobs from teachers returning from overseas. Hampden Street School principal Don McLean said he was surprised to receive between 40-50 applications for six jobs advertised in September, many from experienced teachers.

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International travel: August 2020 | Stats NZ

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Overseas visitor arrivals were down by 243,300 to 7,800 in August 2020, compared with August 2019.

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Our media centre provides links to common media topics, other education agencies, the Beehive website, and current and archived media releases.

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The Education Counts website provides useful research, data and statistics. These include:
Find a school(external link) Find an early learning centre or service(external link) Education data and research Education snapshot by region(external link) Early childhood statistics(external link) Schools and teacher statistics(external link) Stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions from school(external link)
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Minister Hipkins' media releases - Beehive website(external link) Minister Davis' media releases - Beehive website(external link) Minister Martin's media releases - Beehive website(external link)
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A number of New Zealand education agencies provide information and resources about studying and teaching in New Zealand.
Education agencies
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Contact the media team

For all media queries, email our media team in the first instance:
media@education.govt.nz
We monitor emails after hours.

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Our media centre provides links to common media topics, other education agencies, the Beehive website, and current and archived media releases. New Zealand wars Sexuality education School pools and swimming lessons Te reo Māori Paid Union meetings Collective Bargaining The Education Counts website provides useful research, data and statistics.

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Ellen MacGregor-Reid, deputy secretary of early learning and student achievement at the Ministry of Education, said COVID-19 is helping to close gaps in the teacher shortfall.

"The retention rate for teachers is really high and we're expecting it to grow as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," she said.

She said supply will meet demand from next year for at least three years in the primary school sector.

"We have new teacher trainees, we have career changes, we have Kiwis returning home, and of course we've still got some great overseas teachers in the country."

Secondary schools still have supply issues, but it is nowhere near as bad as first thought.

By 2023 it was estimated the country would be down by more than 1200 secondary teachers.

One year, and a global pandemic later, the predicted gap has closed dramatically over the next three years, with the shortage in 2023 decreasing to just 100.

"Now's not the time to take our eye off the ball, we're going to keep focusing on increasing domestic supply," MacGregor-Reid said.

Angela Wall is one New Zealander who's returned to being a teacher. She was let go from her job at Air New Zealand earlier in the year after the virus crippled the aviation industry.

"It just was very coincidental but lucky enough that a position was available at this school, which actually I taught at prior to joining Air New Zealand," she said.

She's now slotted back into her old way of life at Mount Carmel School in Auckland.

"It's nice to have weekends back, and school holidays and all those sorts of things."

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New Zealand's primary school teacher shortage met following COVID-19 pandemic

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Ellen MacGregor-Reid, deputy secretary of early learning and student achievement at the Ministry of Education, said COVID-19 is helping to close gaps in the teacher shortfall. "The retention rate for teachers is really high and we're expecting it to grow as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," she said.

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Full-time equivalent teaching roles in South Canterbury are set to fall by nearly 15 in 2021 compared to 2020, according to Ministry of Education predictions.

Figures released to Stuff show that the 580.7 provisional full-time teaching entitlements (FTTE) for 2020 have dropped to 566 in 2021 across the region's 44 schools.

Schools were notified in September of their provisional roll and provisional entitlement staffing to be funded by the ministry, Ministry of Education deputy secretary of sector enablement and support Katrina Casey said.

"This is their guaranteed minimum staffing level, and it is adjusted upwards during the year if the school roll significantly increases,'' she said.

READ MORE:
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* Waimate Centennial School class sizes lowered to help students achieve

"We are supporting schools and kura to engage with their communities to get students and ākonga back into the classroom. If schools' actual rolls increase upon commencement of the new year, they will receive additional staffing to match."

The ministry's provisional figures for 2021 in South Canterbury show Mountainview High School increasing its FTTE positions by two to 35.3, St Joseph's (Timaru) increasing 1.4 from 10.3 to 11.7 and Geraldine High School going up 1.3 from 38.3 to 39.6.

There are 10 other schools in the region whose teaching team hours will be increasing, but varying in the range of 0.1 FTTE to 0.7.

Staying at the same level as this year are Timaru Christian, Oceanview Heights, Beaconsfield, Lake Tekapo, Makikihi, Waihoa Downs, Waituna Creek and St Patrick's primary schools.

Timaru Boys' High School and Roncalli College will each lose two FTTEs and Waimate Centennial School will lose one. Twenty-two other schools in the region will also lose teaching staff or teaching hours ranging from 0.1 (Gleniti) up to 1.8 at both Waimataitai and Waimate High.

Timaru Boys' High School rector Dave Thorp said though the roll prediction was less than this year for 2021, he was confident it would be a similar size, or bigger, in due course.

Casey said in the case of Waimate Centennial School, annual projections showed it has had a drop in expected student numbers and staffing needs to be reduced by one full-time teacher equivalent.

"We monitor the rolls of our schools and make adjustments annually according to past and projected rolls. For some schools this will mean an increase in staffing, for others it may require an adjustment."

Waimate Centennial School board chairman Greg Clarkson said the school was one of hundreds over the past three months throughout the country to be informed by the ministry they have surplus staffing levels for 2021.

He said rolls fluctuated from year-to-year so all schools at some stage were faced with a change.

"The Board of Trustees and principal have taken advice from the Ministry of Education, teacher union, NZEI (New Zealand Education Institute) and the NZ School Trustees Association in creating a resolution to this. We have consulted with all staff and been open to suggestions in developing the current process," Clarkson said.

He said the board and principal were following due process as they received more information.

In 2016 the Waimate school had a roll of 168, dropping to 151 in 2018 and this year was down to 149. The projected roll for next year is anticipated to be a little lower than this year.

Casey said new enrolments not calculated in the provisional figures could change the staffing entitlement.

If schools thought the ministry's figures were incorrect and could demonstrate it was at least 5 per cent out then they could apply for a review, Casey said.

A quick glance at the Education Gazette for South Canterbury shows vacancies for nine positions for primary and secondary schools, but not all schools advertise through this medium.

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Falling rolls mean fewer teachers in South Canterbury

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Full-time equivalent teaching roles in South Canterbury are set to fall by nearly 15 in 2021 compared to 2020, according to Ministry of Education predictions. Figures released to Stuff show that the 580.7 provisional full-time teaching entitlements (FTTE) for 2020 have dropped to 566 in 2021 across the region's 44 schools.

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On appointment, a teacher must receive a letter of appointment outlining the details of the position, including the position start date, the hours of work (if part-time) and the curriculum areas to be taught. You also need to know if the position is fixed-term (temporary) or long-term relieving.
Subsequent promotions, or agreed changes of job description, should also be recorded in writing.

Get it in writing

A considerable number of the questions that PPTA field officers receive relate to appointments. The most common disputes relate to tenure, hours of work, length of appointment, and job description.

Field officers can assist members to get their appointments properly documented and recorded at the start of their tenure.

Get it in writing from the outset

Teachers should ask for job offers, job descriptions, hours of work, length of employment and tenure to be confirmed in writing.

On appointment, a teacher must receive a letter of appointment outlining the details of the position.

Such details include the position start date, the hours of work (if part-time) and the curriculum areas to be taught.

If the position is fixed-term or long-term relieving in nature, then section 66 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 applies.

Subsequent promotions, or agreed changes of job description, should also be recorded in writing.

Most positions must be advertised in the Education Gazette

STCA 3.2.2 Advertising and Appointment describes the vacant positions that must be advertised in the Education Gazette (ASTCA 2.2.2)

Part-time teachers must have their hours confirmed in writing on appointment

Agreed changes to permanent hours must be confirmed in writing, as must changes to nonpermanent hours of four weeks or more.

Written advice relating to part-time hours should indicate clearly whether there is any payment for non-contact time and whether the hours being offered are exclusive or inclusive of such non-contact time.

There must be a genuine reason for a position being fixed term

Fixed term teachers should have a letter of appointment setting out their terms of appointment. The letter must indicate a genuine reason based on reasonable grounds for specifying why the employment will end.

The reasons must be communicated in writing to the successful applicant. Genuine reasons in teaching include relieving for another teacher while they are away on maternity, refreshment or study leave.

The employee must understand and agree to the reason why the appointment should end at a particular time or at the end of an event or project. This agreement should be put in writing.

90-day trial period applies only to individual agreements

The change to the Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA) that makes all appointments subject to a 90-day trial applies only if included in an agreement between the employer and the employee.

PPTA collective agreements do not have such a clause.

The only way the 90-day trial can apply to teachers and principals is if they agree with their employer that it should be an additional individual term on top of the collective. We recommend against this.
90-day trial applied to PPTA members may be in breach of law
Our advice is that such a term could be in breach of the law, as the 90-day trial period may prove to be "inconsistent with the terms and conditions in the collective agreement".

ERA, clause 61 (1)

Beginning teachers who are not yet members of PPTA may unwittingly sign up to a trial so it's important for branches to make sure new teachers are aware of their rights and offered the protection that PPTA membership will give.

Any teacher or principal pressured to agree to a 90-day trial when applying for a new position should contact their field officer. PPTA would certainly want to challenge the legality of any dismissal that occurred under this provision.
Students are amongst those likely to be badly affected by 90-day trial
The 90-day trial is likely to have devastating effects in the non-unionised, casualised sectors where many of our students work.

The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) has released a series of video interviews with workers dismissed unfairly as a result of the 90-day legislation.
Too much sauce in the aioli
View the CTU video interview in which a cafe/bar worker describes being fired for "using too much sauce in the aioli".

Regraded positions

PPTA Te Wehengarua has noticed that the term "regraded position" is sometimes used by New Zealand secondary schools when advertising vacancies in the Education Gazette

This term has no official status; its intent is to alert prospective applicants to the fact that there will be an internal applicant for the position.

'Regraded' means the school is formally registering a change, there is no actual vacancy to fill but there is a change to someone's position in the school for example:

* increasing the number of units for someone continuing in the role;

* reducing the number of units as a result of a CAPNA process;

* changes in the permanent hours for a part time teacher;

* making a position permanent which has been filled on an LTR basis;

* a transfer between roles in a school, such as an HoD becoming a classroom teacher again with an internal appointment to their role because there is no 'unused' staffing to make an additional appointment;

* changes to a job share position.

The nature of a regarded position usually means that people outside the school could not be appointed to the role.

PPTA encourage any position change to be recorded in the Gazette and, for the reasons above, to be marked as a regraded position.

Fixed term and non-permanent appointments in schools (tenure)

See our section on fixed-term agreements

How can a field officer help?

Advice from PPTA field officers on appointments

Dispute over employment status 0.5 or 0.8 permanent part time (Case one)

Joanna returned to her school after 18 months' leave. At the time she returned to work there was a dispute over her employment status. The school claimed that she was 0.5 permanent part-time. Joanna claimed that she was 0.8 permanent part-time. Neither the school nor Joanna could provide any documents to support their claim.

The field officer tracked down the original advertisement in the Education Gazette and also obtained evidence from payroll which indicated that in the returns the school had made to payroll prior to Joanna's leave the school had coded her as 0.8 permanent part-time. The school therefore agreed to increase her hours.

Fixed term unit status (Case two)

John was advised by his principal that one of his units was fixed-term and that this fixed-term status was about to come to an end. John produced correspondence between him and the previous principal at the time the unit was given in which an offer of an extra unit was made and accepted. The principal's letter made no mention that the unit was fixed-term. In John's letter of acceptance he made mention that the unit was permanent.

With the assistance of the field officer, the current principal came to accept that the unit in question was a permanent one.

Principal advises fixed-term appointment will not be renewed (Case three)

Monica had been employed at her current school for five years. At the end of last year her principal advised her that her fixed-term appointment would not be renewed. She approached her field officer.

Monica's original letter of appointment could not be found. Neither could the original job advertisement. However the field officer was able to have Payroll confirm that for five years the school had been coding information supplied to Payroll regarding Monica as if she was permanently employed.

When this advice was drawn to the school's attention, the school agreed that Monica was permanently employed.

Principal seeks to remove fixed term management unit (Case four)

Robert held three management units. When he was originally employed his letter of appointment indicated that two were permanent and one was fixed-term. Two years later the principal wrote advising that the fixed-term unit was to be made permanent.

Several years, and a change of principal, later the school sought to remove Robert's third unit. Robert sought the advice of his field officer. Although the school had no copy of the earlier principal's letter making his third unit permanent, Robert had kept his copy.

When this was produced, Robert's unit was retained.
Department of Labour guidance Section 66 of the Employment Relations Act covers Fixed term agreements
View condensed page

Last modified on Monday, 10 August 2020 12:52

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Appointments to teaching positions in secondary schools

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On appointment, a teacher must receive a letter of appointment outlining the details of the position, including the position start date, the hours of work (if part-time) and the curriculum areas to be taught. You also need to know if the position is fixed-term (temporary) or long-term relieving.

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Job Prospects... At a glance

In recent years, entry to this profession has become very competitive with supply outstripping demand. This situation is unlikely to change significantly during the next five years. The chances of getting a job as a teacher are better for those who teach a shortage subject, are speakers of Māori and Pasifika languages, or work in isolated rural schools or low socio-economic locations. The long-term demand for teachers is expected to grow slowly but steadily.

The increasing focus on the value of early childhood education, and the increasing participation of women in the workforce are factors that improve job prospects for this occupation. The demand for early childhood teachers who are speakers of Māori and Pasifika languages is particularly strong.

How to become a teacher

What they do

Early childhood teachers teach the basics of numeracy, literacy, music, art and literature to pre-primary students. They also assist in their students' social, emotional, and physical development. These teachers work in early childhood education (ECE) services such as kindergartens, kōhanga reo or education and care centres.

Primary school teachers teach children aged between 5 and 13 years of age at primary or intermediate schools.

Secondary school teachers teach one or more curriculum subject areas to students of about 13 to 18 years of age at secondary schools.

Their tasks may include:

selecting, preparing and presenting courses, teaching materials and lessons suited to the abilities of the students

correcting and assessing students' work

attending to the social, emotional, intellectual and physical wellbeing of students and maintaining acceptable standards of behaviour

assessing the abilities and level of achievement of students through direct observation and administering tests

discussing individual progress and problems with other professionals, parents and students

performing extra-curricular tasks such as assisting with sport, school concerts, excursions and special interest programs

supervising student teachers on placement

maintaining attendance and scholastic records, and school discipline.

Qualifications needed

To become a qualified early childhood teacher, you need one of the following:

Bachelor of Education/Teaching (Early Childhood Education)

Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Early Childhood Education), or

Diploma of Teaching (Early Childhood Education).

To become a qualified kōhanga reo kaiako, you need:

a Tino Rangatiratanga Whakapakari Tohu (kōhanga reo teaching qualification) and

a Bachelor of Education (Whakaako) Early Childhood Education Whāriki Papatipu from Victoria University in Wellington.

To enter the Tino Rangatiratanga Whakapakari Tohu you will also need the National Certificate in te Reo Māori (Level 5) or equivalent. The Bachelor of Education qualification is the only kōhanga reo teaching qualification that leads to registration by the New Zealand Education Council.

Education Council: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/

Primary teachers require one of these:

a three-year Diploma of Teaching

a three-year Bachelor of Education (Teaching)

a bachelor's degree and a one-year Graduate Diploma of Teaching.

Secondary school teachers require either:

a specialist subject degree followed by a one-year Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Secondary)

a combined specialist subject degree and secondary teaching qualification.

Secondary teachers also need to train to teach in at least two curriculum areas.

All teachers also need to be registered with the Education Council of New Zealand.

Cost of study

Approximate costs in 2017 for a domestic student. Costs vary between institutions. Further costs include materials, textbooks, and accommodation.

Rents vary from place to place. Estimated market rents by region, city and suburb are available on the MBIE Tenancy Services website.

The StudyLink website provides general budget advice for students, and the Sorted website provides help with detailed budget planning.

Tenancy Services: www.tenancy.govt.nz
StudyLink: www.studylink.govt.nz
Sorted: www.sorted.org.nz/calculators/money-planner

Where to study

There are a number of teacher-training providers throughout New Zealand. Many provide distance learning. TeachNZ publishes a summary of providers.

TeachNZ: www.teachnz.govt.nz/studying-to-be-a-teacher

The Ministry of Education grants a number of scholarships to those who would like to train as early childhood teachers.

TeachNZ: www.teachnz.govt.nz/scholarships

Registration

Newly qualified teachers must become provisionally registered with the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. They gain full registration after at least two years' satisfactory work as a teacher. Once fully registered, teachers are issued with a practising certificate, renewable every three years.

Completed qualifications

The number of students completing the graduate diploma in teacher education was around declined to 2016 but may be picking up again.
Qualification completions chart
Source: Ministry of Education

Income and employment prospects

Primary

$50,470 with bachelor's teaching degree

$75,200 with seven years' experience

Secondary

$52,736 registered teacher with Level 7 qualification

$80,500 with seven years' experience

Source: Primary Teachers' Collective Agreement, and Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement.

The table outlines the 2019 base salary rates.

Teachers may take on management or specialist roles, such as head of department, curriculum specialist, or leading teachers of a particular year-group. These roles are paid additional remuneration - often through one or more "units" (these are allowances worth $4,000 per year).

An early childhood teacher's income varies according to their qualifications, experience and place of work. Often, pay is individually negotiated with the private or independent education and care centres. Those with a Diploma in Early Childhood Teaching start on about $45,000 and can reach about $60,000 a year.

Early childhood teachers with a three-year degree earn between $47,000 and $71,000. Those with a four-year degree can start at about $48,000 and progress to a maximum of about $76,000 after seven years. Early childhood teachers with leadership roles (such as head teachers) earn up to $98,000 a year, depending on the number of children and staff.

Teachers who teach in schools that are hard to staff may earn an extra $3,500 in their third, fourth and fifth years under the government's voluntary bonding Scheme.

Employment and skill shortages
Teachers' employment
Source: Statistics NZ Census and MBIE projections. Percentages are compound annual growth rates.
*Growth projections are for the category "School Teachers"

Teaching is one of the largest occupations in New Zealand. The number of school teachers grew at 2.1% annually between 2006 and 2013, and employment is expected to keep growing at 1.8% until 2022, and 1.3% until 2028.

Although there is a steady supply of teachers overall, there are shortages in Māori language education and some areas of specialist education. There are also shortages in some other subject areas, and in some rural and low socio-economic locations.

Demand for secondary teachers in specialist areas fluctuates with changes in student demand. However, all secondary schools employ a number of teachers in core subjects like English, mathematicss and science.

Secondary teachers improve their job prospects if they teach a core subject along with one or two specialist topics.
Employment chart

Source: Statistics NZ Census and MBIE projections

Outcomes after qualification completion*

Source: Tertiary Education Commission
*Three years after completion of Bachelor Degree - Education.

The vast majority of graduates with a bachelor's degree in teacher education are in employment three years after graduation, with some overseas and some in further study. The median salary at that point is $49,000.

Teachers are on Immigration New Zealand's Regional skill shortage lists, for all regions. If a job is on the list, it indicates that the government is actively encouraging skilled workers in those occupations to work in New Zealand. A full list is available on the Immigration New Zealand website.

Immigration NZ, skill shortage list: skillshortages.immigration.govt.nz

Where to find job vacancies

Most public teaching vacancies are advertised through the Education Gazette. Private teaching vacancies are advertised through public media such as the Trade Me Jobs and Seek websites.

Education Gazette: gazette.education.govt.nz/vacancies
Trade Me Jobs: www.trademe.co.nz/jobs
Seek: www.seek.co.nz

Career path

School teachers may progress up to senior and management roles, for example:

school/college principal

dean

syndicate leader or head of department.

Career options for early childhood education (ECE) teachers include leadership roles of kindergartens or ECE centres (for example, head teachers), or management roles across a several kindergartens or ECE centres, or within associations or private providers. ECE teachers may also move into youth/community work, policy work and teacher education.

Careers that can be followed outside the school system include:

teaching trainee teachers in tertiary institutions

doing research, policy or advisory work in the education sector

working in training and education roles in business.

Related occupations

The following occupations are related roles or alternative titles. Some of the roles may require a higher level of skill than entry-level teachers.

Early Childhood Teacher

Kaiwhakaako Māori

Primary School Teacher

Private Teacher/Tutor

Secondary School Teacher

Teacher Aide

Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

Tertiary Lecturer

Trainer

Other information

Links

More information on teachers is available on the Careers New Zealand website.

Careers New Zealand: www.careers.govt.nz

More detail on teacher pay and qualifications is available from the Ministry of Education's website.

Ministry of Education, teacher salary and allowances: www.education.govt.nz/school/working-in-a-school/teachers

Just the Job video clip: A Career in Teaching - Early Childhood Teacher (Kaiako) Te Puna Reo
Just the Job video clip: A Career in Teaching - Early Childhood Teaching
Just the Job video clip: A Career in Teaching - Resource Teacher in Learning and Behaviour
Just the Job video clip: A Career in Teaching - Secondary School Teacher
Just the Job video clip: A Career in Teaching - Kura Kaupapa Primary Teacher
Just the Job video clip: A Career in Teaching - Performing Arts Teacher
Just the Job video clip: A Career in Teaching - School Principal

ANZSCO

The Australian New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) is the official classification of occupations in New Zealand.

The occupation of teachers has been coded to the following ANZSCO codes for the purpose of this report:

2233 - Training and Development Professionals
241 - School Teachers
242 - Tertiary Education Teachers
249 - Miscellaneous Education Professionals
4221 - Education Aides

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In recent years, entry to this profession has become very competitive with supply outstripping demand. This situation is unlikely to change significantly during the next five years. The chances of getting a job as a teacher are better for those who teach a shortage subject, are speakers of Māori and Pasifika languages, or work in isolated rural schools or low socio-economic locations.

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Ellen MacGregor-Reid, deputy secretary of early learning and student achievement at the Ministry of Education, said COVID-19 is helping to close gaps in the teacher shortfall.

"The retention rate for teachers is really high and we're expecting it to grow as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," she said.

She said supply will meet demand from next year for at least three years in the primary school sector.

"We have new teacher trainees, we have career changes, we have Kiwis returning home, and of course we've still got some great overseas teachers in the country."

Secondary schools still have supply issues, but it is nowhere near as bad as first thought.

By 2023 it was estimated the country would be down by more than 1200 secondary teachers.

One year, and a global pandemic later, the predicted gap has closed dramatically over the next three years, with the shortage in 2023 decreasing to just 100.

"Now's not the time to take our eye off the ball, we're going to keep focusing on increasing domestic supply," MacGregor-Reid said.

Angela Wall is one New Zealander who's returned to being a teacher. She was let go from her job at Air New Zealand earlier in the year after the virus crippled the aviation industry.

"It just was very coincidental but lucky enough that a position was available at this school, which actually I taught at prior to joining Air New Zealand," she said.

She's now slotted back into her old way of life at Mount Carmel School in Auckland.

"It's nice to have weekends back, and school holidays and all those sorts of things."

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New Zealand's primary school teacher shortage met following COVID-19 pandemic

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Ellen MacGregor-Reid, deputy secretary of early learning and student achievement at the Ministry of Education, said COVID-19 is helping to close gaps in the teacher shortfall. "The retention rate for teachers is really high and we're expecting it to grow as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," she said.

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Flight attendant Melissa Ezekiela always knew she'd return to teaching one day - she just didn't expect it would be this year.

Like many other former teachers who have moved into different careers, the 40-year-old has found herself back in the classroom after being made redundant when the border closed in March.

It's something that has come as a blessing for the profession which has seen the pre-Covid teacher shortage reduce dramatically.

Ezekiela, who had been working as an Air New Zealand flight attendant for five years, is one of hundreds of New Zealanders who are returning to teaching from other jobs or from overseas, or deciding to train as new teachers, since the Covid recession hit.

Statistics NZ says schoolteachers was the biggest single occupational group of returning Kiwis from April to August, accounting for 816 of the 13,303 NZ citizens who came home in those five months.

Secondary Principals Association president Deidre Shea said the turnaround from pre-Covid teacher shortages was "exciting".

"Many of my colleagues and I have experiences with people applying who, if it hadn't been for the events of this year, probably wouldn't have been returning to teaching," she said.

Council of Deans of Education chair Professor Letitia Fickel said applications to enrol for teacher training next year have also jumped - by 36 per cent at her university, Canterbury, where applications have doubled in three years from 510 at this time in 2017 to 836 at this time last year, and 1139 today.

"Many of those expressing interest in the undergraduate programmes would be first-in-family to university and a bit more seasoned people - not 18 years old, they might be late 20s to early 40s," she said.

"They are often mothers who have decided to go into teaching after having children, or people who have left the private sector doing other jobs and have figured out that they are more than capable of doing university-level study."

Ezekiela, a mother of two, worked as a teacher aide before training as a teacher, then decided to become a flight attendant after several years teaching.

"A friend of mine I had been to university with left teaching and flew with Air NZ and she encouraged me to do the same," said the mother-of-two.

"It was always something I wanted to do from a young age, and I thought if I'm going to do it I need to do it now.

"I loved it. When you love people, it's a good job for you. I genuinely enjoyed working with adults."

Over five years she worked her way up to training the new crew and doing all the checks before takeoff and landing on domestic, trans-Tasman and Pacific Island flights.

"I knew that at some stage in the future I would come back to teaching, it was always an option for me," she said.

"But at that time, it wouldn't have occurred to me, because I loved my job. Air NZ is a great company to work for, they look after you."

Then Covid hit. At first, it meant wearing masks and social distancing, which upset the ability to interact with passengers that had made the job enjoyable.

When the border closed to all except NZ citizens on March 19, Air NZ made about 900 cabin crew redundant. Ezekiela opted to go on a "furlough" list, becoming redundant in July but available to be called back if needed.

Meanwhile, she applied for a job as a teacher of new entrants at Stanhope Rd School in Mt Wellington - the same school where she once worked as a teacher aide.

Principal Zane Wilson couldn't believe his luck.

"It's really hard to get experienced teachers for a new entrant class in Term 3. Most people who apply are first-year teachers, and you don't want someone fresh out of school for new entrants," he said.

Equally, Ezekiela "felt very lucky that after being out of it for five years there was a school that was willing to take a chance on me". She started on July 20.

"At first, I have to say it was a little bit of a shock to the system. They are two very different working environments," she said.

"But it all started coming back to me once I got used to it. Now I love it. I'm really happy to be back."

Even with last year's big pay rises for teachers, she took a pay cut of $600 a fortnight to go back.

Within a week after signing up for the job, Air NZ offered her old job back to cope with a surge of domestic travellers after the first Covid lockdown ended. She turned them down.

"I did think about it, it's a career I absolutely loved. But there is no certainty around it," she said.

"Then we went back into the second lockdown. It was in that second lockdown that I thought, I'm really enjoying what I'm doing, and it's safe."

Auckland Secondary School Principals' Association president Steve Hargreaves said the general teacher shortage had eased but it was still difficult to find teachers for hard-to-staff subjects such as science, technology and te reo Māori.

His school, Macleans College, is one of 12 high-decile Auckland schools that have decided to pay course fees for one to three students each to train as teachers with Waikato University on site at the schools. He has already had 12 applicants - "a mixture of people in industry looking to potentially change career, and high-quality graduates with degrees".

"They have been across the subject range, including some hard-to-staff subjects," he said.

"Most of the schools in that group will be looking at those hard-to-staff subjects, finding quality people and getting them involved with their schools."

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How the teacher shortage is dramatically reducing post Covid-19

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Flight attendant Melissa Ezekiela always knew she'd return to teaching one day - she just didn't expect it would be this year. Like many other former teachers who have moved into different careers, the 40-year-old has found herself back in the classroom after being made redundant when the border closed in March.

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Head teacher

Early learning / kōhanga reo, Head teacher
English, Health and physical education, Learning languages, Mathematics and statistics, Science, Social sciences, Technology, Te reo Māori, The arts, Belonging / Mana Whenua, Contribution / Mana Tangata, Communication / Mana Reo, Exploration / Mana Aotūroa, Well-being / Mana Atua

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Early learning / kōhanga reo, Head teacher English, Health and physical education, Learning languages, Mathematics and statistics, Science, Social sciences, Technology, Te reo Māori, The arts, Belonging / Mana Whenua, Contribution / Mana Tangata, Communication / Mana Reo, Exploration / Mana Aotūroa, Well-being / Mana Atua

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But more important than keeping the knowledge flowing is maintaining relationships between teachers and students, as well as students and their friends, he said.

"It's not like you transmit the knowledge content and then people have it in their heads and away they go - we're always revisiting content, we're always making sure that people have got it, they've had those 'a-ha' moments - we'll just continue to do that, because that's what teachers do."

"When you're in a bubble, when you're isolated from your friends, your peer group, even your teachers, that's going to have an impact on you. That's the most important thing for us to focus on when we go back to schools being open for face-to-face instruction - making sure people are okay, that they understand those social bonds are there, their friends are still there and that we're going to get through this year.

"Whether or not you have the same number of credits on your NCEA should probably be secondary to, are you feeling okay? Are you connected with your friends, with your peer group, with your teachers? And can you get on and get back to schooling? That's probably the most important thing we can be doing."

He said students whose education was disrupted by the Christchurch quakes turned out to be a resilient bunch, and he expects nothing less from the rest of the country.

"That's what will happen in time here in New Zealand, even if not everybody's getting the same level of learning now, from home, as what they did six or seven weeks ago."

Full schooling is expected to resume under level 2, which might only be a couple of weeks away.

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COVID-19 recession could reverse teacher shortage - PPTA

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But more important than keeping the knowledge flowing is maintaining relationships between teachers and students, as well as students and their friends, he said. "It's not like you transmit the knowledge content and then people have it in their heads and away they go - we're always revisiting content, we're always making sure that people have got it, they've had those 'a-ha' moments - we'll just continue to do that, because that's what teachers do."

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New Zealand school children have become a bargaining chip in trade negotiations

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OPINION: How did New Zealand school children become a bargaining chip in our recent trade upgrade with China? Don't ask the Ministry of Education, it seems to have no idea. The answer lies with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and it's buried in the complicated balance struck between New Zealand's wish-list in the new trade arrangement with China - and Chinese ambitions in New Zealand.

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Introduction

This page contains information on the number of teachers in state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand. It allows us to examine the number of teachers over time, and to break these down into a range of teacher demographics, school characteristics (such as decile), and regions.

There are two different ways we measure the size of the teaching workforce on this page:

Teacher headcount: which looks at the total number of teachers employed throughout the year.

Full-time teacher equivalent (FTTE): which measures the hours worked by a teacher across a year in relation to those worked by a full time teacher who works the whole year.

More information about this collection can be found on the Schooling Workforce Data Collection page.

On this Page

1. Overview of 2019 Teaching Data

2. Interactive Dashboard

3. Teacher Headcount Time Series Data

4. Full-Time Teacher Equivalent Time Series Data

5. Interactive Teacher Numbers Pivot Tables

6. Teacher Numbers by School

7. What are Headcount and FTTE?

8. Data Dimension Notes

Overview of 2019 teaching data

Interactive Dashboard

The dashboard can show headcount or full time teacher equivalent (FTTE) data. This is changed by the "Display" buttons to the right of the dashboard. By default this is set to headcount.

The buttons at the top of the dashboard control what is on the bottom axis of the graph. To filter the data use any of the Region, School or Teacher filters on the left. To switch between the filters use the buttons titled "Region", "School" and "Teacher". By default the dashboard only shows data from the most recent year. To select other years use the dropdown in the top left (under "Filters").

The "Colour By" buttons to the right of the dashboard allow a second group to be displayed on the graph.

Data can be shown with or without day relief By default day relief is set to "No"; meaning they are not counted in the graph. In general day relief are excluded from routine analysis because they are a casual workforce and numbers can vary depending on cover required because of sickness or other activities. Selecting "Yes" shows only day relief data. Select "Yes" and "No" to show regular teacher data and day relief.

You can expand the dashboard by pressing the ⤢ icon in the bottom right corner of the dashboard.

Read the instructions (pdf 69kB) for more guidance on using the Teaching Staff dashboard.

Teacher Headcount Time Series Data (2004-2019)

These spreadsheets provide teacher headcount data, broken down into a range of teacher demographics, school characteristics (such as decile), and regional type variables.

There are three different tables included here. These enable us to either look at the total teacher workforce, or to focus on either the regular (permanent/fixed term) or day relief workforces in isolation.

The first table provides time series including all teachers - regular and day relief teachers

The second table provides time series including only regular teachers

The third table provides time series including only day relief teachers

Full-Time Teacher Equivalent Time Series Data (2014-2019)

These spreadsheets provide FTTE data, broken down into a range of teacher demographics, school characteristics (such as decile), and regional type variables.

There are three different tables included here. These enable us to either look at the total teacher workforce, or to focus on either the regular (permanent/fixed term) or day relief workforces in isolation.

The first table provides time series including all teachers - regular and day relief teachers

The second table provides time series including only regular teachers

The third table provides time series including only day relief teachers

Build Your Own Table: Interactive Teacher Numbers Pivot Tables

These workbooks allow you to create your tables by any combination of variables. Includes the option of displaying teacher numbers by a range of teacher demographics, school characteristics (such as decile), and regional type variables.
Please note: use of this spreadsheet requires MS Excel version 2007 or later.
Teacher Numbers by School (2008-2019)

This spreadsheet provides a time series of Teacher Head Count and FTTE in a single table for each state and state integrated school.

What are Headcount and FTTE?

Throughout the statistics provided on this page, two different ways of measuring the number of teachers are presented: Headcount and full time teacher equivalent. Here a more detailed explanation of what these mean is provided.

Teacher Headcount

Headcount is a measure of the total number of teachers employed throughout the year. Here all teachers are counted equally, whether they are full or part time.

Teaching staff reported here include all teachers who work at least one day across the year.

Some teachers will work in more than one role across the year, these teachers are reported only once against the role in which they worked the most hours during the year.

Full Time Teacher Equivalent (FTTE)

FTTE measures the hours worked by a teacher across a year in relation to those worked by a full time teacher who works the whole year. An FTTE of 1.0 is equivalent to a full-time teacher working across the entire year, while an FTTE of 0.5 signals a teacher worked half of these hours across the year. This means that they may have worked half of full time hours for the whole year, or that they worked full time hours for half the year, or something in between. In calculating FTTE it is the total hours worked across the year which matter. In calculating the total FTTE of all teachers across the country, individual teacher FTTEs are added together to give the total FTTE.

Teaching staff reported here include all teachers who work at least one day across the calendar year.

Some teachers will work in more than one role across the year, these teachers are reported only once against the role in which they worked the most hours during the year. This means that even if a teachers FTTE is spread across multiple roles, the entire FTTE will be counted against their main role in the data reported on this page.

FTTE is calculated differently for regular (permanent and fixed-term) and day relief teachers:

For all regular teachers FTTE is calculated as the number of hours worked during the year divided by the total number of hours a full time teacher (i.e. 1 FTTE) would work.

For Day Relief teachers FTTE is calculated as the number of days they worked during the year divided by 190. This calculation acknowledges that a day relief teacher is normally only employed during school terms.

Teaching Staff Data Dimension Notes

Year:

The calendar year a teacher taught in. For headcount data this goes back to 2004, however for FTTE data this only goes back to 2014. This is due to changes in definitions occurring in 2014 which make the time series prior to 2014 not comparable to those from 2014 onwards

Sector:

Teachers are grouped into the primary or secondary sector depending on the type of the school they work in. The primary sector includes all primary schools, intermediates and special schools. The secondary sector includes all secondary schools and composite schools (including Te Kura, the correspondence school)

Designation:

The type of teaching role a teacher works as their main role during the year.

Employment Type:

Whether a teacher is employed on a fixed term, permanent or day relief basis in their main role during the year

Full Time/Part Time:

Whether a teacher is employed as full time, part time (or day relief) - in their main role during the year.

Ethnic Group:

The Ministry uses Statistics New Zealand's definition of ethnicity: ethnicity is the ethnic group or groups that people identify with or feel they belong to. Ethnicity is a measure of cultural affiliation, as opposed to race, ancestry, nationality or citizenship.

Total response ethnicity is used here. This means that teachers can identify with up to 3 different ethnic groups, and have been counted in each ethnic group they belong to and once in "Total" Ethnic Group.

Age Group:

The age of the teacher, in ten year age-groups. Age is calculated as at 1 July for each year.

Teacher Gender:

The gender of the teacher.

School Type:

The school type of the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year.

School Gender:

The gender of the students that a school caters for, for example, co-educational, or single sex.

Māori Medium Status:

The Māori Medium status of the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year:

Māori Medium: All students are taught the curriculum in Māori for at least 51 percent of the time.

English Medium: No students are taught the curriculum in Māori for at least 51 percent of the time.

Māori and English Medium: Some students are taught the curriculum in Māori for at least 51 percent of the time.

Urban/Rural:

A grouping based on the size and nature of the area of the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year. These groupings are based on Statistics New Zealand definitions:

Main Urban:

Main urban areas are very large urban areas centred on a city or major urban centre. Main urban areas have a minimum population of 30,000.

Secondary Urban: Secondary urban areas have a population between 10,000 and 29,999 and are centred on the larger regional centres.

Minor Urban: Minor urban areas are urbanised settlements (outside main and secondary urban areas), centred around smaller towns with a population between 1,000 and 9,999.

Rural: Those living in rural settlements or townships, also includes areas with a population between 300 and 999.

Decile:

The decile assigned to the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year.

Students from low socio-economic communities face more barriers to learning than students from high socio-economic communities. Schools that draw their roll from these low socio-economic communities are given greater funding to combat these barriers. The mechanism used to calculate and allocate this additional funding is most often known as school deciles.

Schools are assigned a socio-economic score based on five census derived socio-economic factors. Decile 1 schools are the 10% of schools with the greatest proportion of students from the most socio-economically deprived areas. Decile 10 schools are the 10% of schools with the greatest proportion of students from the least socio-economically deprived areas.

Group Decile:

School decile grouped into Low (Decile 1-3), Medium (Decile 4-7), and High (Decile 8-10).

Territorial Authority:

The Territorial Authority linked to the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year

Regional Council:

The Regional Council linked to the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year.

Education Region:

The Education Region linked to the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year.

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This page contains information on the number of teachers in state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand. It allows us to examine the number of teachers over time, and to break these down into a range of teacher demographics, school characteristics (such as decile), and regions.

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Education sector lifts August job numbers | Stats NZ

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Job numbers rose in August 2020, largely due to a rise in filled jobs in education and training.

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Thousands of Kiwis have returned to the country faster than they expected as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, often after spending years overseas.

Stats NZ population manager Kim Dunstan believes such returnees made up a decent chunk - if not the majority - of the total of 21,124 people who arrived in New Zealand between April and June.

About three-quarters of those arrivals were travelling on New Zealand passports, but Dunstan notes some of them will have been residents returning as planned from regular holidays, family visits and business trips.

The non-citizens who arrived here during the travel ban will be New Zealand residents travelling on foreign passports, and people who were given travel exemptions - either because they were family of New Zealand citizens and residents or had been allowed in as "critical workers".

READ MORE:
* Returning Kiwis should be welcomed home
* Returning Kiwis may have to wait overseas, as quarantine hotels fill up
* Death of the big OE? Will young Kiwis have to give up on their overseas travel dreams?

A good proportion of returning Kiwis appear to be finding work and settling back into the country remarkably quickly, despite the economic doldrums.

The adage that you will be OK if you have a skill that is in high demand, for example in IT, finance or construction, still seems to apply.

Cameron Heka, 30, an IT contractor, expedited his return to New Zealand by shelving a six-month tour of South America that he and his wife had planned after a five-year stint in London.

Like many returnees, they had been planning to come back to New Zealand later this year anyway, in their case because their United Kingdom visas were about to expire.

They landed in New Zealand just a few days before the country went into level 4 lockdown in March and Heka says managed isolation gave them time to get their breath back.

"Every time we come home we have to say hello to a thousand people so it was actually nice to not have to see everyone straight away," Heka jokes.

"When you are away for so long, you get the never-ending questions: 'When are you buying a house? When are you having babies?' - just give me five minutes to get in the door."

Initially, the jobs market was "bizarre to the say the least", he says.

"There was just nothing going on.

"My wife and I were probably the very lucky ones in that we came home with a bit of savings and weren't pressured to get jobs straight away."

But his wife found work as a project manager on the RiverLink project in the Hutt Valley, and he has now got work with a government department.

"I think it really helped being skilled; we have both got about nine years' experience now. But it really varies based on what you do."

The declining value of the British pound means pay is not even too dissimilar to London, he says.

But housing, especially finding warmer housing, is harder, he says.

So they have put in an offer in on a new home off the plan in Lower Hutt, and put the long trip to South America out of mind.

"I think the real estate agents are under pressure to sell before the market crashes, but the property market comes back long term."

Others have been in the tougher situation of having to come home soon after uprooting themselves from New Zealand.

Courtney Ratuszny, 28, gave up her accommodation, quit her job, sold "everything she owned" and was only two months into an OE in South-East Asia, in Vietnam, when it suddenly went into Covid lockdown.

"Most of the tourists had left and it got pretty rough over there because many of the locals such as street vendors couldn't make any money so they got very aggressive," she says.

"We closed our borders here and everyone was encouraging me to come home, so I did."

After briefly being threatened with having to spend four weeks in a "tiny" transit room in a terminal in Hong Kong, Ratuszny was allowed to travel back via Australia on a jet with just 17 travellers on board.

She has just found work as an adviser at a government department, but only after what has been her longest job search.

"I have 10 years corporate experience and a degree, but trying to find work is quite difficult in this market.

"Higher calibre candidates are going into lower-level roles."

Ratuszny is keen to travel again but says she will probably keep it to "a month here and there".

Adam Williams, 33, says he feels for younger people in Ratuszny's position whose travel dreams came crashing down so soon.

Like Heka, he had been thinking about coming back to New Zealand sometime this year anyway, after six years contracting as an accountant in London, and Covid-19 was just the catalyst.

"I lost my job in April. My boss was told to get rid of all of his contractors as soon he could, so that made the journey back a bit easier."

"I was at a hotel in Auckland for a couple of weeks in managed isolation, getting my CV done and meeting with recruitment agents over Skype and Zoom."

He also claimed JobSeeker support "for the first time in my life, which was very helpful".

Williams said he dealt with about six or seven recruiters over video before he landed a job with disability trust Spectrum Care on Monday.

"I guess I was looking pretty hard for a job from the start of May so it took me a bit longer than I would have thought, pre-Covid.

"But it feels like the market has picked up in the last couple of weeks."

Bridget Clarke, assistant director of recruitment company Robert Walters, agrees.

The agency has seen a surge in Kiwis returning from overseas "perhaps a lot quicker than they thought they ever would", she says.

"There are a couple of different types of people; Kiwis in their late 20s and early 30s who were expecting to get their visas renewed by their UK employers and who are not doing that, but also people who realise New Zealand has a lot to offer - there are some large-scale exciting projects that are happening."

Clarke doesn't believe people should be too concerned about the economy's ability to soak up that workforce "at this stage".

But she says Kiwis who have perhaps stayed in the same job here for "10, 15 or 20 years and who have not broadened their experience" may find it a bit harder because the level of skills in the market has been uplifted by returnees.

"Things are definitely picking up and most employers are back in the office now, which helps. Normally we need people to be back in the office to stimulate recruitment.

"For a number of our clients, the step down to level 1 came pretty quickly and that is a positive."

Despite forecasts that unemployment will reach 8 or 9 per cent as the wage subsidy crutch is removed, Clarke describes the jobs market in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as "pretty buoyant".

"There is lots of money being invested in the 'shovel ready' projects.

"It is an election year and the Government has got a number of projects it needs to deliver."

Then there are the infrastructure projects that "don't stop" such as Transmission Gully, the Dunedin Hospital build and CityRail in Auckland, she says.

"All of these projects require a skilled workforce."

The biggest challenge for returning Kiwis is often housing, she says.

"Kiwis coming home - depending on how long they have been away - are always surprised by the cost living," she says.

"Food is expensive, rents are expensive and the average salary in New Zealand is pretty low.

"With a salary of £30,000 in London, you can have an okay life, but with $60,000 in New Zealand you are going to struggle."

But employers like people who have had overseas experience and having "done" that experience means candidates are more likely to then commit to New Zealand, she says.

The influx should be kept in perspective.

The number of new arrivals has surged in recent weeks, prompting Housing Minister Megan Woods' surprise announcement on Tuesday that the Government had stepped in and would be controlling Air New Zealand bookings to avoid a crush on managed isolation and quarantine facilities.

But between April and June, 56,871 people left New Zealand, so there was a net loss of 35,747 people during the three-month period, Customs data shows.

Those departures will have included straggling tourists and students, but also people on working holidays and temporary work visas calling it quits.

"A lot of seasonal workers from the likes of Vanuatu have returned in recent weeks and there have been repatriation flights to India and so on," Dunstan says.

At the moment, it is uncertain how many returning Kiwis will stay in the country long enough to be classified as migrants, he says.

"There is certainly a shift from that long-standing pattern where we had more departures of citizens than arrivals, but it remains to be seen how sustained it will be."

The number of Kiwis settling back home for good during the past few months - whether it ultimately proves to be 5000, 10,000 or 15,000 - is still a drop in the ocean compared to the number of New Zealanders who could potentially return here in a global crisis.

Dunstan says that, depending on how nationality is defined, there are 570,000 to 1 million Kiwis still living overseas, and about 1.3 million overseas-born people who are now living here.

"A lot of them have been overseas for a long time and have roots firmly implanted in other countries."

Peter Wilson, principal economist at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, believes any concern that returning Kiwis might be difficult to employ or house would be overblown.

"We just do not have the data yet" to work out how many of the 21,124 arrivals are Kiwis coming back for the long-term, and how many have been coming back from long holidays, he says.

"My gut feeling is it is probably about half each."

But that wouldn't be enough to move the needle much when it came to the unemployment rate, house prices or other macro-economic indicators, he says.

"Under the current restrictions, with two weeks' quarantine and now with limits being placed on the number of people who can come back, the number of returning residents and citizens is actually quite small," Wilson says.

"Compared to what we have had in last five to seven years of permanent migration, this looks really quite manageable."

Nor does he see borders opening up and the situation changing soon, when the attitude of most Kiwis is that they are "quite happy" behind the tight border.

Understandably though, some returning Kiwis have found the attention being turned on them unnerving.

Jo and Andy Hay have been isolating at the Grand Mercure Hotel in Wellington after a nine-year stint teaching in China, Italy, Colombia and finally South Korea.

Jo Hay has secured a teaching job in Hamilton.

"When we arrived in Wellington, I guess I was surprised and then a little shocked that there was so much focus on us as we entered our hotel," she says.

"I'm not used to being filmed, and it made me nervous. It was not till I saw Phoebe, a student from Te Aro School, holding a sign reading 'Welcome Home Be Kind Everyone' that I relaxed.

"What a difference those acts of kindness make."

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Thousands of returning Kiwis join the job-hunters in post-Covid NZ

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Thousands of Kiwis have returned to the country faster than they expected as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, often after spending years overseas. Stats NZ population manager Kim Dunstan believes such returnees made up a decent chunk - if not the majority - of the total of 21,124 people who arrived in New Zealand between April and June.

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This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.
Schools around the country are paying tens of thousands of dollars to private consultants to change the way they teach reading.

The so-called "structured literacy" approach is backed by 30 years of educational research - but schools are not entitled to any funding from the Ministry of Education to do it.

Wanaka principal Jo McKay said the problem with the current system was that it waited for children to fail and then tried to do something about it.

She and her colleagues at the integrated state school Holy Family School were frustrated by the lack of progress for some students, despite what she calls a mishmash of interventions.

READ MORE:
* More schools change tack on teaching children to read and write
* Advisor under fire as literacy group says reading programme failing children
* Young New Zealanders are turning off reading in record numbers - we need a new approach to teaching literacy

"We were still getting the same data, they weren't working for us so we really needed to stop doing what we were doing and take this risk and make this change."

The school, which has 225 students, has spent about $30,000 on professional development for its teachers and another $15,000 on resources to complement the structured literacy approach.

This involves systematic instruction in phonics - and phonemic awareness: teaching children the 44 unique sounds that distinguish one word from another.

McKay said some teachers were initially hesitant about doing something that seems so at odds with the way they've been taught to teach.

However, they were quickly won over.

"I've seen teachers working within our school who have said to me personally ... 'I feel I have the ability now to make change ... whereas before I just felt like I was scratching the surface'."

Most schools in New Zealand teach "balanced literacy" - also known as the "whole language" or constructionist approach, developed by ground-breaking New Zealand educationalist Dame Marie Clay.

It is based on the idea that learning to read should be as natural as learning to talk, and if you put children in a "book rich" environment, they will learn to read in their own time, taking their cues from pictures and context.

However, advocates of structured literacy say all children benefit from explicit instruction.

And for the estimated one in seven children who are neurodiverse, particularly those with dyslexia and other learning disabilities, they will not learn easily any other way.

McKay said her school had seen phenomenal improvements for all students including those with dyslexia.

Kaiapoi North School in Canterbury has invested about $20,000 and principal Jason Miles said it was worth every cent.

"After two years of those children having the structured literacy approach, 68 of the 72 children are at or above the curriculum standards, and it is in the 90 per cents rather that the 65 to 70 percentage."

Schools were frustrated by the lack of government support, he said.

The ministry does fund the Reading Recovery programme, pioneered by Marie Clay, at a cost of just over $29.1 million this year.

Schools that did not want Reading Recovery should be able to use that funding for something else, in his view.

Fellow Canterbury principal Penny O'Brien agreed it was inequitable that schools were funded for Reading Recovery but not alternatives.

"We know there is no point in putting students through a programme that isn't actually going to benefit them in the long run. That's a waste of resources and that's hugely stressful for a child and their family."

Ladbrooks School on the outskirts of Christchurch converted to structured literacy three years ago.

O'Brien estimates it has cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars" for a specialist teacher, six learning assistants and professional development for all teaching staff.

She said however you could not put a price on what students had gained, the impact went beyond literacy.

"I listened to a little person ring their parents today to say how much success they've had with their literacy and that smile and the confidence ... that's what we're here for."

It had been been a massive pedagogical shift for staff, but they would never look back.

"It's about doing the right things for our kids. Once you know it you can never unknow it, you don't want to unknow it."

Massey University literacy expert Professor James Chapman said it was great that principals were taking the initiative.

"It's a pity they have to pay for it but those principals who've chosen this structured literacy approach are absolutely onto it in terms of the best reading science evidence at the moment."

The Ministry of Education said it was currently not an option for Reading Recovery funding to be directed elsewhere, but schools were able to use their own resources to implement alternative programmes if they chose.

In a written statement, Early Learning and Student Achievement deputy secretary Ellen McGregor-Reid said the ministry had always supported a range of approaches to teaching young children how to read, including phonics, based on research.

"We are enhancing our Ready to Read series of texts to include a systematic approach to teaching phonics in the early years of learning and will support schools and kura to implement these new resources next year.

"Reading Recovery provides learners with effective literacy support. We are making improvements to Reading Recovery next year to strengthen the focus on phonics in early literacy learning to ensure the programme continues to meet the diverse needs of learners."

This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

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Schools footing bill to teach teachers how to teach

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This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission. Schools around the country are paying tens of thousands of dollars to private consultants to change the way they teach reading. The so-called "structured literacy" approach is backed by 30 years of educational research - but schools are not entitled to any funding from the Ministry of Education to do it.

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https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics?

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Statistics relating to fees-free tertiary education, including demographic data, student loan borrowing, course completions and study load.