Thousands of teachers needed

Auckland needs 6500 more high school teachers over the next 20 years to cover a predicted shortage, according to a principals’ group.

The Auckland Secondary Schools Principals’ Association (ASSPA) said the region was haemorrhaging quality teachers, and there weren’t enough teachers training to cover the amount about to retire.

It all came down to pay, association spokesman and Glendowie College principal Richard Dykes said.

‘‘Pay teachers what they are worth. It is as simple as that.’’

‘‘We’ve got schools now competing with each other for teachers. I know one school [that is] offering a recruitment bonus out of their funds to attract new teachers and we’ve got schools using operating budgets, which they should be using on textbooks, to pay extra to poach teachers from each other.’’

There are about 100,000 secondary students in Auckland, from Wellsford to Onewhero, and about 7000 secondary teachers in Auckland in 2017, according to a position paper released by the association on Tuesday.

The region needed more than 9000 secondary teachers by 2037 to keep up with projected student numbers, but instead was on track to have

‘‘Pay teachers what they are worth.’’ Richard Dykes

only 3000.

Nationally, there was an ‘‘impending tsunami’’ of teacher retirements and rapidly declining numbers of teaching graduates, Dykes said.

Ministry of Education figures showed secondary teacher trainees were down from 1865 in 2010 to 1120 in 2016 – the latest available figures.

During that period, New Zealand’s population grew by about 400,000.

The crush was also felt by others in the education sector; between 2010 and 2016, pre-school teacher trainee numbers fell from 6760 to 3615 and primary teacher trainees were down from 5740 to 4065.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the figures were staggering.

‘‘[It’s] a ticking time bomb for schools as baby boomer teachers retire and too few incoming teachers [come] through to take over.’’

He said the Government had introduced a $9.5 million teacher supply package before Christmas and had ‘‘started the ball rolling’’ on ways to make the teaching profession more attractive.