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Education Minister Steve Maharey has been accused of deceiving the public over the number of teacher vacancies.
On Tuesday, Mr Maharey said a decline in the number of vacant teachers positions to 370 reflected the Government's efforts to match teacher numbers with demand.
He said schools would start the year with an estimated 753,000 students and 50,000 teachers, but only about 370 teacher vacancies.
The vacancy figure was less than 1 per cent of all teaching positions.
National's education spokesman Katherine Rich said Mr Maharey appeared to be deceiving parents and schools as last year he had put out a press release saying the number of teacher vacancies was 315.
"Surely he would have known the figures he was quoting in the media release represented a 17 per cent increase in teacher vacancies," Mrs Rich said.
"Parents, children and schools deserve better than this," Mrs Rich said.
- NZPA
