'Low-calibre' teachers at chalkface

By JO-MARIE BROWN

Worried secondary school principals say up to half the teachers recently appointed for the coming school year are not of a high enough calibre in a year where teacher shortages are the worst on record.

The Secondary Principals' Association of New Zealand (SPANZ) has released its latest staffing survey showing concern over people hired to teach technology, music, art, Maori and other languages.

Principals also felt the quality of applicants for English, maths, science and technology positions in particular had declined and that teachers applying for heads of department jobs had fallen to critically low levels.

Association president and principal of Papakura's Rosehill College, Bali Haque, said a drop in the calibre of those being hired was simply a demand and supply issue.

"By far the majority of appointments made have been fine, but we're just getting into that period where, when there is a shortage, you end up having to make compromises about the appointments you make."

The number of people training to be teachers has risen as a result of the Ministry of Education's $37 million incentive schemes, but the benefits were only beginning to flow through.

Mr Haque said a surge in secondary school roll growth - expected to last for the next five to seven years - was exacerbating the teacher shortage.

The Education Gazette was advertising 316 secondary teacher positions, although some were notification of job description changes rather than vacancies.

Post Primary Teachers Association president Jen McCutcheon said the shortage was the worst on record.

At the same time last year, 170 jobs were being advertised and schools struggled with the shortage.

Mrs McCutcheon said the shortage would have to be managed with large class sizes, unqualified teachers and multi-level classes.

"If I was a principal I'd be panicking, too. This is the highest shortage on our records. There were large classes last year and this year will be worse."

Last year some classes had 50 students to one teacher.

She said there was no point encouraging more teachers to train if there was no incentive to stay.

According to the PPTA's survey, 30 per cent of the teachers who graduated in 1999 had left teaching by 2001, many recruited overseas because of a worldwide shortage.

Fewer teachers were predicted to leave after last year's average 12.5 per cent pay increase, and three to five hours a week non-contact time ruling.

But there was still a lot of room for improvement if the ministry wanted to keep good teachers.

Mr Haque said hiring mediocre teachers would affect the quality of education, but there was little parents could do about it.

The principals' association was also calling on the Government to encourage teachers to take up heads of department positions by offering better incentives.

"The problem is we're unable in schools to give them the time they need to do that job and certainly we're not paying them enough."

Ministry of Education spokeswoman Anne-Marie Johnsen said there was no specific scheme targeting heads of departments, but schools could reallocate their funds and resources to make such positions more desirable.

- Additional reporting Cathy Aronson