Categories: News

Teacher shortages worst since surveys began

<h2>An annual survey of secondary school principals has found that schools right around the country are experiencing significant teacher shortages&comma; worse than last year’s results and in some cases&comma; worse than ever before&comma; according to <b>New Zealand Post Primary Teachers Association &&num;8211&semi; Te Wehengarua<&sol;b>&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>NZ Secondary Principals’ Council chair James Morris says&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There’s a perfect storm happening in education right now and it’s our young people who are bearing the brunt of it&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There is a wave of teachers about to retire and I’m embarrassed to say that we have reached the point where we are begging them to stay on&comma; for another term&comma; another year&comma; until the crisis is over&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;&lbrack;pro&lowbar;ad&lowbar;display&lowbar;adzone id&equals;&&num;8221&semi;4703&&num;8243&semi; align&equals;&&num;8221&semi;left&&num;8221&semi;&rsqb;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Young graduates no longer want to enter the profession&comma; the pay is far too low compared to what they earn in other careers and&comma; of the new teachers who do enter the profession&comma; nearly half burn out and leave within five years&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Vice President of Auckland Secondary School Principals’ Association&comma; Richard Dykes&comma; agrees&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Principals are increasingly frustrated and concerned that the teacher shortage is getting worse&comma; not better&period; I want to place highly skilled and motivated teachers in front of my students&comma; but this is getting harder and harder&period; I’m increasingly hearing stories from our members of schools having to cut subject choices&comma; increase class sizes and timetable teachers into classes outside of their specialist curriculum area&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Auckland Principals want to provide a world-class education system for our students and their families&comma; but the worsening shortage of quality New Zealand teachers with the right skills and experience&comma; is making this ever more difficult&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Morris and Dykes agree the shortages are at crisis level and urge the government to put in place sustainable ways to attract and keep teachers in the profession&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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