A Bay of Plenty teacher who quit the profession feeling “burnt out” after three terms says it was an “accumulation of the stress and the pressure of being a first-year teacher”.
Jake Angus (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui) says leaving was “one of the hardest decisions” he ever had to make.
But better pay rates in Australia now have him considering a return to the profession.
It comes as new data shows a total of 27,000 teacher practising certificates have expired and not been renewed since 2017, with numbers rising for the past five years.
One union representative believes there has been an “exodus” of teachers to Australia - even before a new citizenship pathway for Kiwis in Australia was announced at the weekend.
The Ministry of Education, however, says overall teacher numbers have grown.
Angus, 25, started his first job at Ōmokoroa Point School near Tauranga in 2021 and stayed until the end of Term 3.
While he “absolutely” loved teaching his Year 5/6 class, he decided to resign after realising how the job had impacted his wellbeing.
Angus said he regularly worked overtime outside of school hours planning, marking, writing reports, replying to parents’ emails and researching how to better support high-needs students.
“All that take-home work was more what led me to leave - I felt like I was never able to not work.”
He was “constantly thinking” about his job and struggled to switch off.
The “stress of money” also contributed. Angus said he earned roughly $1300 a fortnight but living with his family saved on living costs.
Angus said he was on mental health leave for two weeks prior to resigning. He eventually decided his mental health was not good enough to “be the best teacher I could possibly be for my kids”.
“I was feeling very burnt out... it was an accumulation of the stress and the pressure of being a first-year teacher.”
Angus said “imposter syndrome” had set in and he was constantly questioning if he was good enough to be a teacher.
Angus now works at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa supporting adults enrolled in home-based learning programmes across Tauranga, Rotorua and the wider Bay of Plenty.
He said he was “a lot” less stressed and had created a “distance” between his work and home life.
Aiming to widen his knowledge of inclusive and special education after working with neurodiverse students, he was planning postgraduate study in New Zealand before looking for a primary teaching role in Australia.
“The salary there makes all the extra behind-the-scenes stuff actually worth it.”
In his view, more government funding was needed to improve working conditions for Kiwi teachers and ensure salaries reflected their skills, student loans, hours and effort into creating an “inclusive and diverse classroom”.
“People need to realise teachers are fundamental to society - we build the next generation up.”
Ōmokoroa Point School principal Sandra Portegys said the reality of teaching nowadays was that it was a “really complex job” that often went underappreciated.
”Our teachers work incredibly hard, and as Jake said, they take the job home with them. They take the kids home in their heads,” she said.
”They want to be able to offer so much more to our students - but the lack of support we have available has a big impact.”
Portegys said working conditions in schools needed to improve, otherwise she feared “we won’t be able to retain those amazing teachers we have”.
”To provide the best for your students, we have got to look after our staff.”
Teaching Council figures supplied by the Ministry of Education showed the number of teacher practising certificates expiring each year and not being renewed rose from 3364 in 2018 to 5521 last year - more than the 5248 in 2017.
A Teaching Council spokesperson said the increase in the number not renewing was “small” and factors such as low turnover during the pandemic, closed borders and the aging population could be contributing.
At the end of last month, 110,635 teachers held practising certificates and the number with a certificate or Limited Authority to Teach had grown by nearly 7 per cent since 2019.
“There are no signs that the steady year-on-year growth we’ve seen since 2019 is diminishing.”
The “jump” in teachers not renewing practising certificates between 2021 (5066) and 2022 (5521) represented 0.4 per cent of the number with current practising certificates.
Having a certificate did not mean someone was employed as a teacher and some of those who leave later return.
Ministry payroll records show 1301 of the Bay of Plenty/Waiariki teachers who left between 2017 and 2022 recorded a reason, with the most common including retirement, leaving the education service, maternity/childcare and a fixed term ending.
Commenting on the data, Waikato University pro-vice-chancellor of education professor Don Klinger said between 2018 and 2022 there was an upward trend of teachers’ practising certificates expiring.
Disruption from Covid-19, working conditions and pay were among likely reasons, he said.
“There’s evidence nationally and internationally that Covid did put a lot of stress on educators and I think we’re seeing some examples of teachers just saying ‘this has been too much’.”
Klinger said declining numeracy and literacy rates along with curriculum changes could also be adding pressure.
“Right now the education profession is the under the gun. Results haven’t looked great... you have got a curriculum reform happening.”
Speaking generally, Rotorua Principals Association president Hinei Taute said some schools in the area had found it “tough” to find new staff who could “hit the ground running”.
Taute, principal of Lynmore Primary School, said she was lucky staffing numbers were reasonably “stable” at her school, unlike some others.
Taute said teaching was a “24/7 job” that could “become overwhelming” - particularly for new teachers.
Anxiety and stress could impact teachers if they did not have processes in place to manage their health and work-life balance, she said.
This pressure could lead to teachers changing careers, retiring early or moving to part-time, she said.
“We have got quite a number of different challenges on a day-to-day basis and it’s about how we respond to that. Expectations are quite high - it’s not for everybody.”
NZEI Te Riu Roa ki Waiariki Bay of Plenty area council chairwoman Andrea Andresen believed there had been an “exodus” of teachers to Australia post-Covid for better pay.
But Andresen, who’s the assistant principal at Tauranga Special School, said this would likely not be reflected in expired practising certificate data.
Andresen said a beginning primary teacher in New Zealand was paid $51,000 to $53,000, whereas in Victoria, Australia, they started on the equivalent of about $82,000.
Andresen said last year a Kiwi teacher living in Australia applied for a role at her school but eventually withdrew, in part due to “how much less she would earn and how much more she would have to pay to have somewhere to live”.
Ministry of Education hautū (leader) education workforce Anna Welanyk said Covid-19 had caused “some changes to teacher supply”.
For example, in 2021 there was a “significant increase” in teacher sickness, which put a strain on staffing in schools.
That year the ministry also saw initial teacher education enrolment and teacher retention rates both “jump significantly” above recent averages, she said.
Welanyk said modelling in December suggested the New Zealand teaching workforce was in a “reasonable position” for the forecast need.
This project was “based on many assumptions” so the ministry also monitored other data in real-time to track actual outcomes, she said.
Welanyk said some schools were having trouble finding staff with teaching specialities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subjects and te reo Māori.
The Government had also made investments over the past five years to develop and expand teacher supply initiatives, she said.
This included, in September’s allocation of $23.626 million, introducing initiatives to boost teacher supply by up to 177 domestic teachers and 760 international teachers.
Rod Emmerson's take on the week.