Photo / 123rf
By RNZ
The Education Ministry is forecasting a shortfall of 30 secondary teachers in Auckland this year.
The city's principals have complained for several years that they are struggling to find good teachers.
The ministry said its latest projections showed demand for secondary teachers in Auckland would grow every year till 2025, but the demand for primary teachers would decrease every year to 2026.
"In both sectors, over the next few years we are anticipating even higher teacher retention, growth in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) graduate numbers due to increased enrolments, and in particular in 2021 a growth in the number of former teachers interested in returning to the workforce, partly driven by qualified teachers returning to live in New Zealand since the global outbreak of Covid-19."
The ministry said it expected demand for secondary teachers would rise roughly in line with supply and the city would be short 30 teachers this year, 20 teachers next year and 60 teachers in 2023.
It said the schools would need particular help finding teachers in hard-to-staff subjects such as maths, science and technology, and Māori medium teachers.
It said it was confident there would be enough primary school teachers to meet demand in the city over the next three years.
"However, beneath this high-level outlook for the Auckland region, we anticipate there will still be an ongoing need to help primary schools in the Māori medium sector find teachers, and to support individual schools where required," it said.
The Auckland figures were in line with national projections the ministry announced late last year.
At that time it forecast no shortage of primary teachers nationally, but a shortfall 80 secondary teachers this year, 30 teachers in 2022, and 100 teachers in 2023.
The figures for secondary teachers were an improvement on previous forecasts.
Ron Murray's wife Jill described him as a 'man of many talents'.