One in five secondary teacher vacancies could not be filled at the start of this year, a survey of school principals has found.
The Post Primary Teachers' Association surveyed 155 secondary principals in early term one. Results showed 23% of vacancies attracted no suitable applicants, while 28% had only one suitable candidate. A third of positions received no applications from New Zealand-trained teachers judged suitable.
The staffing crisis has led a quarter of principals to cancel courses or transfer them to Te Kura the Correspondence School. Nearly half of surveyed schools now employ people without teaching qualifications in teaching roles, down from 57% last year.
PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said the shortage was particularly concerning given changes to curriculum and assessment. "We're increasingly relying on unqualified and untrained teachers to fill the gaps," he said. "That's bad enough at the best of times but when we're dealing with once-in-a-generation curriculum and assessment change where we need our teachers ground in pedagogy, grounded in qualifications, grounded in curriculum; it's a real concern."
While total applicant numbers were among the highest recorded, most came from overseas. New Zealand-trained applicants averaged 2.9 per vacancy, one of the lowest figures on record, with only half judged suitable compared to 60-66% in recent years.
Abercrombie said overseas-trained teachers "have been absolutely vital to our system, but they take a lot of time to upskill. We're going to have this continual shortage until we have a government that is serious about supporting teachers."