Mallard gives $167m for extra teachers

By ALAN PERROTT

An extra $167 million will be spent over the next four years on 774 new secondary and primary school teaching jobs.

The new jobs, announced by Education Minister Trevor Mallard yesterday, will be available at the start of the next school year and will be extra to the positions required to cope with rising rolls.

Primary schools receive the larger slice, with 412 extra teachers. The remaining 362 positions will go to secondary schools.

Maori schools will gain 155 of the new positions to help establish a 1:20 teacher student ratio for students taught in Maori for more than 12.5 hours a week.

Mr Mallard said the money would be drip-fed over the next four years.

Next year, $20.4 million would be spent, followed by $48.8 million in 2005 and 2006, and $48.7 million in 2007.

A further $22 million will go towards boosting plans already set up to encourage more people into teacher training, retaining teachers already working and to attracting overseas and expatriate teachers.

Details of how this money will be allocated would be announced after consultation with education groups.

Mr Mallard said the money would improve learning for students and reduce teacher workloads and staffing pressures on schools.

The announcement follows a survey issued this month which showed almost 43 per cent of secondary schools and 11 per cent of primary schools began the school year with staff vacancies.

But Mr Mallard said schools would still be better off despite the teacher shortage.

"Having a vacancy is probably not the end of the world for a school as they are no worse off. Having an extra teacher but not being able to fill the position is better than not having the possibility of filling it," he said.

Bali Haque, head of the Secondary Principals Association congratulated the minister for following up on his commitments, but said schools would still be short of staff.

The secondary teachers' employment contract allows three non-teaching hours a week for each teacher. This will increase to four hours next year.

Mr Haque said the extra staffing would add about one teacher to each secondary school, and he doubted this would cover the shortfall.

Many schools would still have to consider increasing class sizes and cutting courses.

John Morris, principal of Auckland Grammar and chairman of the Education Forum, questioned where the new teachers would come from.

"There might be teachers around, but it's quality teachers we need."

Mr Morris said there was a growing consensus that students were better off in larger classes with top class teachers than in smaller classes with less able teachers.

Some unemployed teachers were looking for work, he said, but most were overseas trained and unfamiliar with New Zealand curriculum and assessment procedures.

Mr Mallard last year said primary and secondary schools would gain almost 4000 new fulltime teacher positions by 2007 at the latest.

The 774 new jobs follow 373 announced last year, bringing the total fulltime positions that will been created between 2000 and next year to about 2100.

In March last year, state secondary and primary schools had 41,579 fulltime teacher-equivalent positions.