Bovaird resigns after 15 years as school principal
More teaching manpower is needed to address the nation’s teacher shortage, a longstanding Auckland high school principal says.
Lynfield College principal Steve Bovaird said teacher shortages had been one of his biggest challenges in the 15 years he’s been a principal.
‘‘When you advertise for a job there’s not a lot of applicants applying for a teaching position - and that’s right across Auckland,’’ Bovaird said.
‘‘Research tells us is that the most important thing to helping young people achieve is to have high quality teachers in every classroom.
‘‘What I’d like to see is a situation where we have people banging on our doors wanting to come and teach.’’
Bovaird retires as principal at the end of term one in April, marking the end of a 41 year career in teaching.
He said the Ministry of Education should consider teacher student ratio projections for the future as well as work on encouraging more teachers into training programmes.
Bovaird said teachers should also be provided with more opportunities and incentives to upskill.
‘‘Bringing in overseas teachers has been wonderful for our education system, however we should be attracting more locals into teacher training and encouraging them to stay in teaching.’’
Bovaird’s colourful teaching career began as a geography, social studies and history teacher at Mt Roskill Grammar School 41 years ago. He also taught at Henderson High School and Birkenhead College before he joined Lynfield College as deputy principal.
‘‘I have been so grateful to the support I had from the wonderful teachers at Lynfield, and I will miss this community very much.’’