Shortage of specialist teachers

Almost half of secondary school students are being taught by teachers who don’t specialise in the subjects they’re teaching, a report has found.

Of 162 surveyed schools 40 per cent of secondary school principals said they could not find teachers to fill specialist roles. About a third of advertised teaching jobs had no suitable applicants.

Teacher recruitment and retention at schools across the country has been blamed.

But Education Minister Chris Hipkins said a teacher supply issue did not mean secondary students would not receive satisfactory teaching.

He said yesterday schools were given access to recruitment support and additional funding to help them manage but admitted there were not enough teachers ‘‘in the right place with the right skills’’.

‘‘We know that we’re going to have to do a lot more.’’

There was no overnight solution he said, but it could be fixed.

‘‘It does take a couple of years to work our way through that, but it can be done and that’s what we’ll absolutely be looking to do.’’

The report said 20 per cent of schools had cancelled classes or adopted distance learning techniques to fill the gap.

Maths, English and science classes were most frequently covered by teachers trained in physical education, primary and social studies.

Hipkins said ‘‘creative timetabling’’ meant those teachers often taught students at junior levels to leave specialist teachers to focus on senior classes.

Schools that couldn’t find teachers were accessing resources through Te Kura, The Correspondence School, he added.

It’s a short-term solution. Of the teachers who had left the profession in the last year 40 per cent were retiring and eight per cent of schools did not have relief teachers, the report said.

‘‘Principals are more negative about the recruitment and retention of teachers than they have been since the end of the 1990s.’’

Darfield High School principal and Secondary Principals’ Council chairman James Morris said the survey highlighted a progressively worsening trend.

Teacher shortages had the biggest impact on students’ learning and risked becoming a ‘‘hidden problem’’, he said.

‘‘[Schools] they do what they can to cover classes but it definitely affects students and the schools.

‘‘The biggest impact on students doing well is having a quality teacher in front of them.’’

Morris’ school had difficulty recruiting teachers this year for English, physical education, maths and technology.

National’s education spokeswoman Nikki Kaye acknowledged a nationwide teacher shortage had compounded over successive governments.

She said the only way forward was a long-term plan that covered salary, teacher training, graduate trends, incentives and workload.

But there needed to be greater investments in the short-term too, she said.

‘‘It is an area where we can be doing more around teacher refresher courses, around ensuring that we do have incentives like voluntary bonding.’’

The report on the secondary school principals’ survey was released this week by the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA).

‘‘The biggest impact on students doing well is having a quality teacher in front of them.’’ Darfield High School principal and Secondary Principals’ Council chairman James Morris