KEY POINTS:
Millions of dollars up for grabs to cut a teacher shortage has not been spent - despite a $2 million a year advertising push from the Government.
TeachNZ offers scholarships of up to $30,000 a year to attract new trainee teachers.
But figures released yesterday by National Party education spokeswoman Katherine Rich showed that of $6 million available for Teach NZ scholarships in the last financial year, just $4.6 million was allocated.
"There was a $1.5 million under- spend that could have gone to support quality teachers."
Ms Rich said just $716,000 was allocated to date this financial year, figure she believed was "way behind" officials' targets.
She said the scholarship scheme had failed to attract quality applicants at a time when the teacher shortage was at crisis point - and as 40 per cent of the current teachers was planning to retire in the next 15 years.
The scholarship scheme had been madeover last year in an effort to ensure it attracted prospective teachers in areas of need.
Secondary Principals' Association president Peter Gall said the leftover scholarship money was disappointing.
"If they can't give out those scholarships, that shows that there's something pretty desperately wrong, that young New Zealand people are actually voting with their feet in terms of not wanting to go teaching."
Mr Gall said schools had been forced to can subjects because they couldn't find people to teach them.
"At the start of the [school] year, there are going to be principals screaming out about the lack of teachers," said the Papatoetoe High School head.
"It's fairly desperate. I've got some appointments to try to do now for the start of the year and I know that I am going to have all sorts of difficulty."
Education Ministry spokesman Iain Butler said the scholarships underwent a successful makeover and were relaunched last September.
"The previous scholarships offered allowances of up to a maximum of $10,000 over a period of years. Not all of the previous scholarships covered course costs, whereas all scholarships now cover course costs and recipients are bonded to teach."
Among initiatives to attract experienced workers was the "career change" scholarship, offering a $30,000 annual stipend plus course costs to recipients to retrain in areas of high need, such as technology teaching.
Mr Butler said 40 Maori medium scholarships attracted more than 50 applications and several others were yet to close. The money allocated for 2007-08 was low because the majority of payments was made at the end of the financial year.
"The average age of beginning teachers has been increasing and is now mid-to-late-20s. This is significant because it means that having 40 per cent of teachers due for retirement in 15 years is becoming a normal state of affairs - not a problem."
