Just over half of New Zealand primary schools say they do not have all the teachers they need.
A survey by the primary teachers’ union, the NZ Educational Institute (NZEI), found 30% of primary school principals said there were no suitable applicants for the jobs they needed to fill.
More than half (52%) said they did not have all the teachers they needed this term and 28% had to increase class sizes this term because they could not find enough teachers.
Ninety percent of principals said they struggled to find relievers when teachers were sick.
A third had split up classes and spread pupils around other classrooms more than five times this term when relieving teachers could not be found. Another 50% had split classes fewer than five times.
The shortage is much worse for low decile schools: 62.5% of principals in the poorest three deciles said they did not have all the teachers they needed this term, compared with 39% in the richest three deciles.
The survey is based on responses from 700 (36%) of the country’s 1945 primary and intermediate schools, and was organised as the institute campaigns for a 16% pay rise for teachers over two years.
The teacher shortage has been a major justification for the pay claim, as the institute says it has become harder to recruit teachers as their starting salaries, now $49,588 a year, have slipped from 25% above the national median wage in 2001 to 1% below the median last year.
Domestic students starting teacher training (excluding early childhood teaching) have dropped by a quarter from 3590 in 2008 to 2790 last year.
