Teaching crisis to ‘escalate’
Teachers across the country are banding together to warn the public of a looming crisis in education; fewer teachers and more pupils.
The number of people enrolling in teacher training in the last six years has decreased by 40 per cent, while the population continues to grow, teachers say.
NZEI Te Riu Roa, the national teachers’ union, is campaigning for better wages and working conditions, in a bid to attract new teachers and keep them in the job for longer.
Blenheim teacher Carly Barnes said the campaign was about teachers being valued as professionals, who did a crucially important job.
‘‘If we’re not paying teachers what they are worth, then why would anyone choose to do the job?’’ Barnes said.
‘‘It’s about keeping good teachers in front of our children. It’s not that people don’t want to be teachers. We love our jobs. But the general public and the Government need to acknowledge that it’s worth putting money into their pay and conditions.’’
The Bohally Intermediate teacher was one of about 150 teachers, or about 90 per cent of Marlborough’s teachers, that went to union meetings in Blenheim on Wednesday to formally support the national campaign.
Union president Lynda Stuart said it was difficult to hire teachers now, but there would be a ‘‘crisis in teacher numbers’’ in five or 10 years if something did not change.
‘‘We need to address these issues now, otherwise the crisis in teaching will only escalate and we’ll be faced with classes of 40 or more children,’’ Stuart said.
Marlborough branch chairman Dave Paterson said the campaign was more about children than teachers.
‘‘There’s more and more workloads put onto teachers and schools. We need extra time to be able to test children, plan quality programmes, get professional development, but at the moment we’re too busy just trying to do the basics,’’ Paterson said.
‘‘We need the best and brightest and most talented teachers we can get, and at the moment the best and brightest and most talented are not choosing to be teachers.’’
When Paterson became a teacher 37 years ago it was seen as a noble career choice, he said.
‘‘Now people are saying, ‘why would you want to be a teacher? The pay is awful, kids are getting tougher’. It’s time to stop and do something different before it gets worse.’’
Barnes said wages no longer reflected the skill level required to be a teacher.
‘‘Teaching is a pretty intense job. It’s not just making sure they’re learning and feeling safe and happy, it’s all the admin work on top of that. There’s a lot of multi-tasking involved,’’ Barnes said.
‘‘It is one of the most important jobs we can do.’’
Barnes said she did not know a single teacher who did not work overtime.
Mayfield School teacher Ciara Belcher said in her two years in the profession, she had come to understand how teachers became burnt-out and quit.
She knew several teachers who had gone to non-skilled jobs ‘‘where they could work 9 to 5 and just leave their job behind at the end of the day’’, she said.
‘‘The people who are losing out here are our children. That affects everybody, whether you’re a teacher or a parent or neither. If we value education, and realise we need to look after young people who are going to take over in 20 years, our community will be so much better off for it,’’ Belcher said.