KEY POINTS:
With the academic year well under way, schools are feeling the strain of the labour market skills shortage. While a shortage of teachers is nothing new, the reasons for it seem to be.
Traditional issues, such as pay and conditions, have been exacerbated by a reluctance of schools to employ teaching graduates.
In a recent survey published by the country's largest education union, the New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI), principals claimed they were facing the worst teaching shortage in 15 years.
But, at the same time, 40 per cent of teacher training graduates are unable to find employment.
The current shortage could be greatly assisted if these graduate teachers found employment, so the question needs to be asked: Why are schools not employing graduates and how can we change this?
Professor Luanna Meyer of the Victoria University Education Faculty says the issue is not the Government failing to fund adequate numbers of teachers in training but that there are "schools that are unable or unwilling to hire beginning teachers".
"Schools are saying they don't have enough qualified teachers but we also know we don't find certain kinds of schools hiring beginning teachers. Many of our graduates don't get jobs until after they've served a period of time as reliever teachers or they've gone overseas," she says.
She suggests some kind of quota system could be introduced.
"Perhaps every school needs to have an obligation over a period of several years that they must take at least one beginning teacher, just to give people an opportunity to start."
However South Auckland principal David Wallis says forcing schools to take graduates won't work. Instead, you have to improve the calibre of graduates and understand the pressure graduate teachers place on a school, and support the schools employing them.
Wallis says schools' reluctance to employ new graduates may stem from a perception about their lack of on-the-job knowhow. He believes new graduates "should have more practical experience to bring with them to schools".
Wallis thinks some of the key reasons for schools not employing new graduate teachers are concerns about their level of experience in the classroom, the quality of the graduates from particular teacher training schools and their often limited communication skills.
When receiving CVs from new graduate students, he says it is not uncommon for them to get the name of the school wrong.
The general competency of new graduates is also under fire, as a recent eight-month examination of the quality of teacher education pointed out. "I have sat on intake panels and have been horrified as to who has been selected for [teacher training] college," one submission read.
Wallis believes that when employing new graduates "there are some teachers colleges we would be wary of hiring students from".
The Government has not yet made up its mind but under consideration is a draft proposal which will give students an extra year of on-the-job training.
The National President of the NZEI, Frances Nelson, says the problem could be solved. "The Government needs to implement strategies to give new graduates permanent positions, so they will receive registration in a nurturing, professional environment. We can't just supply schools with beginning teachers without induction programmes."
Wallis cautions against filling the gap with immigrant teachers. "The Government has got challenges to staff schools with suitable teachers, because it's all very well to bring in a lot of immigrants whose teaching qualifications have been accepted to NZ standards and therefore say there is a surplus of teachers, but sometimes inducting a lot of these immigrant teachers creates pressure and difficulties within schools."
A recently resigned teacher from South Auckland thinks that standards for speaking English are too low for newly immigrated students. "Some people shouldn't have been accepted for teacher training because they struggled with English, and I felt that letting them study was a money-making exercise, giving them false hope. The kids just didn't understand them."
Nevertheless, Professor Meyer believes there is a place for immigrant teachers. "Our schools are now so heavily populated with immigrant children, immigrant teachers can be perfectly suited to the job."
Meanwhile, teacher demand is at an all-time high. It is predicted that 270 new teachers will be needed this year in South Auckland alone. The increased demand exists thanks to rising rolls because of the population booms of the 1980s and early 90s and the Labour Government's soon-to-be-introduced (May 2008) initiative to reduce the ratio of students per teacher to 18:1.
A recent survey published by NZEI raised concerns about the number of experienced teachers leaving their jobs.
There is much for the Government and teacher-training facilities to consider.
