Teacher training enrolment numbers finally increasing

WELLINGTON: New teacher training enrolments have finally jumped significantly after almost halving in the buoyant job market in the first half of this decade.

Official figures released by the Ministry of Education show new domestic students beginning teacher training rose by 10% last year, from 3915 to 4300.

That was the highest intake since 2014, but still well below a peak intake of 6940 new teacher trainees in 2010, when many people were attracted into teaching because other jobs had dried up after the global financial crisis.

Official figures for the 2019 intake are not yet available, but initial reports suggest that the upturn in new trainees has continued.

The improvement is likely to reflect both a cooling in the wider job market and a desperate shortage of teachers, which has given people more confidence that they will get teaching jobs after training.

There has also been a series of Government initiatives to attract more people into the profession.

Education Ministry deputy secretary Ellen MacGregorReid said more beginning teachers gained fulltime permanent jobs last year than in previous years — although the actual numbers gaining such roles were still only 30% of firstyear primary teachers and 42% of firstyear secondary teachers.

That means that a majority of firstyear teachers still appear to be getting their first jobs in parttime or fixedterm positions, such as covering for experienced teachers on parental leave.

The figures show there has been a slight increase in the diversity of firstyear teacher trainees.

There has been a gradual increase of Maori firstyear trainees from 17% of the intake in 2008 to 22% last year — now higher than the 17% Maori share in the total population aged 15 to 39.

Pasifika firstyear teacher trainees have also increased slightly to 9%, exactly in line with their share in the wider age group.

European firstyear trainees have declined from 74% in 2008 to 68% last year, also exactly in line with their share of the age group.

However, Asians have remained only 9% of the teacher training intake, well below their 17% share of the age group.

The teaching intake remains overwhelmingly female, but female trainees have dropped more than men over the past decade, so male firstyear trainees have increased significantly from 15% in 2008 to 20% last year.

Men now make up 43% of the trainee intake for secondary teaching and 20% in primary teaching, but only 3% in early childhood education. — NZME