Teachers propose crisis plan
Education groups are calling for urgent increases to teacher pay and for Auckland teachers to have their student loans written off.
A 10-point plan was launched by the NZEI Te Riu Roa, New Zealand Principals Federation, Auckland Primary Principals Association and Waitakere Area Principals Association in Auckland on Wednesday.
The group, representing teachers and principals, wants the incoming Government to begin implementing the plan by the end of the 2017 school year.
Principals were concerned that if the issue wasn’t addressed, many children would have their education compromised due to overcrowding in classrooms or lack of a permanent teacher, Waitakere Area Principals Association President Donal Mclean said.
The ongoing teacher shortage in Auckland has reportedly reached crisis levels with more than 80 per cent of the city’s principals saying they are struggling to recruit teachers.
NZEI Te Rui Roa president Lynda Stuart said retaining teachers with diverse backgrounds in Auckland had to be a priority to make sure children didn’t suffer.
The two-part plan aims to make teaching a satisfying and viable career option and to also help children with additional learning and behavioural needs.
Teachers needed to have smaller classes and needed time to teach rather than overassessing children, the group said in its plan.
Pay needed to be increased, student loans written off and affordable housing investigated.
New Zealand teachers’ salaries were about 80 to 90 per cent of similarly-educated professionals in 2014, a recent OECD report said.
Last month, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern said her party had set aside allocations of funding in its education budget to deal with the issue in the short term.
She said in the long term, Auckland first needed to address its housing crisis driving teachers away.
Education Minister Nikki Kaye said there was a definite teacher shortage in certain places around the country and in certain subjects, the Government was doing all it could to address it.
‘‘We take it really seriously, if one school has problems getting a teacher that’s a crisis for them.’’