By REBECCA WALSH
At least 2500 extra teachers will be needed in secondary schools in the next five years to cope with an influx of students.
The secondary teachers union, the PPTA, is warning of a major teacher shortage but the Ministry of Education is confident it will be able to meet demand.
The ministry expects the secondary school roll to peak in 2007 at 293,700.
It is at present about 240,000. The Ministry estimates about 2500 extra teachers will be needed between 2000 and 2005.
The Post Primary Teachers Association says about 400 teachers will be needed each year over the next eight years to keep pace with roll growth but fears that unless pay and conditions are improved, too few graduates will be attracted to the profession.
PPTA advisory officer Rob Willetts said a union survey, to which seven teacher training institutions responded, found the average number of places offered dropped from 147.9 in 1997 to 140.1 in 2000.
The number of applications per place offered was 2.53 in 1997 compared with 1.57 in 2000. In 1997, 92.6 per cent of positions were filled while in 2000 only 81.4 per cent were filled.
Irene Lynch, the national manager of TeachNZ, said teacher trainee numbers had increased significantly in the past decade, although the rate had slowed in the past year. Last year there were 1769 trainees compared with 1614 in 1997 and 874 in 1992.
"Nationally, the number of enrolments, not the targets [of each institution] are our concern," she said.
The PPTA says 108 primary and secondary school teachers left the profession last year.
Mrs Lynch said it was likely that many overseas teachers, here on work permits for up to three years, were included in that figure.
Mr Willetts said the teacher supply issue hit rural or low-decile schools the hardest. Problem areas were maths, computing, technology, physics, chemistry and Maori.
A PPTA survey this year, to which 125 of the country's 365 secondary and area schools responded, found 20 per cent of non-management teaching positions advertised had one or no applicants and 8 per cent had no applicants at all.
Fifty-six per cent of positions attracted fewer than five applicants.
Mr Willetts said that had resulted in some schools employing untrained and unqualified staff.
"Schools don't jump up and down and say, 'we can't find trained and qualified teachers'. The minute they start to let the community know, parents start to think 'should I shift my kid out of there?'"
PPTA president Graeme Macann said the teacher supply issue was a huge concern and the way forward was improved pay and conditions, including a better teacher-student ratio.
An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development survey this year found New Zealand had the third worst teacher-student ratio in the OECD, with 21 students per teacher in the secondary sector.
Wanted: 2500 more teachers
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