Rough road for beginner teachers
A fixed-term role is effectively a year-long job interview for many new secondary teachers, union members say.
Less than a quarter of graduates snare a permanent teaching position and some think that’s partly down to illegal contracts.
The others do day-to-day or longer-term relieving, facing job uncertainty, long commutes, and struggle to get a mortgage, union members say.
A report called ‘‘Teachers in the precariat: fixed-term contracts and the effect on establishing teachers’’ was presented at the Post Primary Teachers’ Association national conference in Wellington on Wednesday.
Paul Stevens, the author of the paper, was one of the lucky ones, going from training to a permanent position at Albany Senior High School, on the North Shore.
But he knows someone who left the profession after a string of eight fixed-term contracts.
Another worked in three different centres in his first two years of teaching, forcing him into a longdistance relationship with his partner.
‘‘When teachers are being forced to go from one school to another and in some cases even travel from one centre to another . . . you’re not able to build those relationships with students, or to really become a part of the life of that school,’’ Stevens said.
About 15 per cent of graduates get a permanent position after study, according to Ministry of Education figures in Stevens’ report.
The report also says some schools seem to be illegally using the contracts to size up potential employees, and about a quarter of ads in the Education Gazette didn’t say why a position wasn’t permanent.
Teachers might repeatedly move school and sometimes city, Stevens said.
That affects everything from relationships with students and career progression to mortgages and personal relationships.
And it’s hard to say no to bosses when you’re on a fixed-term contract, Hamilton Girls’ High School teacher Sam Speedy said.
‘‘It feels like an eternal job interview situation,’’ the Waikato new and establishing teachers representative said.
‘‘The workload stress for teachers is hard enough and the stress of a first year teacher trying to get their head around the job is even harder.’’
‘‘I know other people that have been on fixed-term contracts year after year, so I was actually quite lucky to find a permanent job in my second year.’’
Teachers on year-long contracts are often preparing students for NCEA as they themselves worry about their next year of employment.
‘‘That’s definitely going to show in the classroom, because something has to give,’’ Speedy said.
The PPTA report proposed a commitment to establishing teachers at secondary and area schools.
It is modelled on a similar pledge for the primary sector, which has signed up more than 200 schools, the paper said.
A statement from the Ministry of Education’s Lisa Rodgers acknowledged schools have increasingly been using shortterm contracts to fill gaps.
But the ministry hadn’t heard of schools using the contracts to trial teachers.
‘‘We have no role in any decision a school makes when hiring teaching staff.
‘‘As a school’s legal employer, boards of trustees and principals make all decisions associated with recruiting staff,’’ the statement said.
‘‘It is worth pointing out that teacher entitlements are generous in areas such as parental and study leave. That means schools have a significant number of fixedterm positions to cover for extended absences.’’
There will be 536 study awards available in 2017, for example.
The ministry is working with the PPTA and others on issues such as the supply of teachers in areas including Auckland, and is willing to hear any other staffing concerns.