Minister hints at teachers pay rise

‘‘We’re very live to the fact those groups of professionals probably haven’t seen the benefit they should have.’’ Finance Minister Grant Robertson

Teachers, nurses and other public sector salary workers could be in line for a decent pay bump, Finance Minister Grant Robertson has hinted.

Primary school teachers union NZEI Te Riu Roa has suggested a 16 per cent pay rise over two years as it prepares for negotiations with the Government.

Robertson won’t commit to that or any number but he has said that teachers, nurses and other salary workers had missed out on the benefits of the country’s economic growth.

‘‘We’re acutely aware of the fact that over a long period of time, teachers, nurses have said, ‘Well, we haven’t received the dividend that we’ve seen from the growth in the economy’,’’ he told the Q+A TV show yesterday.

‘‘They’re not alone in that. We have got to take a realistic approach but we’re very live to the fact those groups of professionals probably haven’t seen the benefit they should have in recent years.’’

Asked if that meant they were in line for a ‘‘decent bump’’, Robertson said they were ‘‘in line for a negotiation with us’’.

‘‘When people start throwing figures like 16 per cent around, you’ve got to be pretty careful with a number like that. But it is time for New Zealand wage and salary earners to see better dividend from growth,’’ Robertson told Q+A.

‘‘That can’t all happen overnight. Some of it’s actually about lifting our productivity. Some of it’s about making sure that we prioritise areas like health and education better than has been done in the past.’’

There has been a 40 per cent decrease in teacher trainees over the last six years, a problem NZEI has put down to uncompetitive pay demoralising the profession.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said last week that she could not comment on exact numbers ahead of a negotiation. ‘‘But there’s no doubt that teachers are an incredibly valuable part of our public service.’’ A 16 per cent pay rise would cost roughly $300 million.

‘‘The solutions are not cheap but tackling these issues head-on is the only way to stop this crisis in teacher numbers turning into an unmitigated disaster for our children’s future education,’’ union president Lynda Stuart said.

‘‘The children of New Zealand deserve the best education in the world and the Government has committed to that. 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.’’

Teachers will meet to discuss the proposal today.

More than 600 primary and secondary school teachers’ jobs are being advertised in the Education Gazette. Some of them have been unfilled since the end of the previous school year. A nationwide teacher shortage is now beginning to bite, to the extent that some are saying the profession has reached a crisis point from which it will take years to recover.

The PPTA, the main secondary teachers’ union, says that shortages are worse in some geographic areas and some teaching subjects. ‘‘Principals are considering the prospect of cancelling subjects for lack of trained and qualified teaching specialists.’’

A survey of secondary principals in November found the shortages were nationwide but worse in metropolitan areas, and in Auckland and Manukau in particular.

Principals had been unable to find teachers for about

570 positions, and a further 700 places were filled ‘‘by compromising on the qualifications or the quality of the appointees’’.

Anecdotal accounts suggest the crunch is worse in the crucial STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is not hard to imagine why. What would induce a graduate in a science or computer science degree, for example, to train for a further year as a teacher, when their degrees are likely to win them better pay packets elsewhere?

A declining interest in the teaching profession can be seen in the Ministry of Education statistics showing the number of trainee and graduate teachers.

In 2016, the latest year for which data has been published, 3465 new teachers completed their qualifications across all the teaching sectors – early childhood, primary and secondary. This compared with

5635 five years earlier.

Only 715 new secondary teachers completed their training in 2016, compared with 1175 in 2011. The number of new graduates is currently about half that required to fill the secondary education vacancies advertised at the beginning of each school year.

The problem is likely to get worse because the profession, starved of young blood, is ageing rapidly. In

2004, 18 per cent of teachers were 55 or older; by last year this had risen to more than 28 per cent. In secondary schools, 45 per cent of teachers are 50 or older. When they retire, who will replace them?

Teachers’ pay has been dropping in relative terms. In 2003, the top of the teacher pay scale was $56,400, about 81 per cent above the median income. By 2016, the top teacher pay bracket of $75,950 was 58 per cent above the median wage.

It must be said that the rise in teachers’ pay packets over this time did keep pace with inflation, but that is not the point. If teachers’ wages are becoming a less attractive inducement compared with almost every other profession going, why should young people consider teaching as a career?

The education unions are gathering these sorts of statistics as ammunition to use when renegotiating the collective agreements which expire in the next few months. Expect a winter of discontent on education’s industrial front.

But the Government is also conducting a year-long review of education. It would be negligent if it did not make restoring the mana of the teaching profession part of that. Because, in the final calculation, if the teaching profession remains in crisis, it is our children who will suffer.