KEY POINTS:
Big salaries and generous living allowances are luring an increasing number of Kiwi teachers to the Middle East.
Tax-free wages in the United Arab Emirates can top the equivalent of $100,000 a year, compared to $60,000 after five years at a secondary school in New Zealand.
The wealthy Persian Gulf emirate opened its borders to foreign teachers to help reform its education system, and New Zealanders are in big demand.
But some Kiwi principals fear the phenomenon will worsen our teacher shortage.
Macleans College principal Byron Bentley said New Zealand teachers heading to the UAE were "sure to be among the best and the brightest".
Kiwi teachers looking to move to the Middle East usually do so through Cognition Consulting, the export arm of the Multi Serve Education Trust.
The trust was established in 1989 under the Tomorrow's Schools reforms and has an annual turnover of $20m.
About half is generated through Cognition, whose adverts promise "a competitive salary, furnished accommodation, airfares and medical insurance".
The Post Primary Teachers' Association has described the trend as "strip-mining of the education system" and "teacher trafficking".
President Robin Duff said there was growing concern at the "unusually large numbers" heading overseas.
He predicted more teachers would head to Asia, particularly China, and said there was "no way" we could compete financially with the oil-rich nations of the Gulf.
He urged the Government to improve working conditions for teachers, starting with reducing class sizes and giving them more time to catch up on paperwork.
But Multi Serve chief executive Dr John Langley accused the association of being short-sighted.
"It doesn't matter what profession you work at, people in New Zealand work overseas," he says.
Langley said Cognition had employed 240 people overseas since 2004, with 190 currently on the books.
He said almost 70 per cent of teachers recruited in New Zealand had returned to work here.
Northcote College principal Vicki Barrie said the Government should provide a "significant financial incentive" to keep the best teachers here.
"We are out of step with international salaries and there's a global market for teachers that we're at the wrong end of."
Rangitoto College principal David Hodge said many young teachers were not prepared to wait a decade or more to move up the pay scale.
A Ministry of Education spokesman said new initiatives were in place to keep Kiwi teachers here and it promoted teaching in New Zealand through adverts and at trade fairs abroad particularly in Canada and the UK.
HIGH EARNERS
Science teacher Kate Crews, who left Auckland for a contract in the Middle East, considers the place "fantastic". The 36-year-old earns more than $100,000 annually and describes the cost of living as "next to nothing".
She and husband James moved to the United Arab Emirates in May last year and settled in Abu Dhabi, with Kate working as an adviser to a girls' school and James in the building sector.
Kate started teaching in Auckland in 1996, working at Papakura High and Kristin School in Albany before moving to the UK.
The couple moved to the UAE for financial and career reasons.
"New Zealand is a small place. It's very hard to get promotions."
Kate said they are happy in the Middle East.
"Even if they were to match the money [in New Zealand] it's the opportunities that appeal."
