Two weeks until school starts, 350 teachers short

With just two weeks before the start of term, more than 200 teaching jobs in secondary schools and nearly 140 in primaries have yet to be filled.

As of last Wednesday, 216 secondary teacher vacancies were advertised on the Education Gazette website.

Despite the shortfall, Associate Education Minister David Benson-Pope said secondary schools faced the lowest shortage of teachers in recent years.

There were 18 per cent fewer vacancies than the same time last year and 45 per cent fewer than for the same time in 2003.

Mr Benson-Pope said Government action to keep teachers in the profession had helped to reduce the shortage.

"The Government has established 1800 extra secondary teaching positions since the start of 2003," he said.

"The fact that there are fewer vacancies this year despite the increased workforce shows teacher supply policies are working."

Many of the vacancies are in subjects such as mathematics, physics, technology and te reo Maori, which are traditionally difficult to fill.

Mr Benson-Pope said in September last year the Government had announced further scholarships to address these shortages.

There were 137 vacancies in the primary sector, as of last Wednesday. At the same time last year there were 197.

"Schools are better placed for the start of 2005 than they have been for some considerable time," said Mr Benson-Pope.

"In a [secondary] workforce of some 21,600 teachers the vacancy rate is just 1 per cent."