Core subjects hit by staff shortage
Students face missing out on some subjects due to the ‘‘impossibility’’ of finding specialist teachers, Auckland principals say.
As they struggled to fill vacancies, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects were being hit hardest, and some principals feared they risked being cut from curriculums.
Auckland Secondary School Principals Association president James Thomas said it was a ‘‘crisis’’.
While different schools had different pressures, the number of applicants for teaching roles this year had been ‘‘dramatically low,’’ and the number of vacancies was the ‘‘worst in memory’’ for this late in the year, he said.
The Whangaparaoa College principal said some Auckland principals are concerned they would have to cancel classes and disestablish some subjects altogether in 2018.
Staffing science and technology was a ‘‘real challenge’’ across the board, but there had been an issue of both quality and quantity of people applying for teaching positions this year in general.
To pick up the slack, principals were getting ‘‘creative’’ – retraining staff to pick up other subjects in their field.
‘‘Principals are optimistic by nature, but we’re also being realistic.’’
Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault said it was difficult to find staff in general, but ‘‘bordering on impossible’’ to find hard materials teachers, and those in STEM fields.
As a result it was becoming increasingly common not to offer certain subjects, or cut the number of those sorts of classes on offer, he said.
The decile 3H school has had teacher vacancies for a number of months.
‘‘We all seem to stealing off each other rather than addressing the issue – that demand for teachers outstrips what we have available.’’
It is not just low decile schools struggling, either.
Patrick Gale, the principal of Auckland’s largest high school, Rangitoto College, said it was also under significant staffing pressure.
Like Papatoetoe High School, the school’s biggest gap was in hard materials and the sciences, he said.
The Education Minister’s office is expected to announce a teacher supply initiative before Christmas.