Corporate world lures te reo speakers
Better pay and smaller workloads are seeing many Ma¯ ori language teachers swapping the classroom for the boardroom, the New Zealand Principals’ Federation says.
The pull of the private sector is adding to an acute teacher shortage across all levels of education, with some centres struggling to fill vacancies.
The Government poured in an extra $9.5 million as part of a teacher supply package to address an immediate need last year, including in Ma¯ ori medium and te reo education.
This week, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis acknowledged bridging the teaching gap would ‘‘not happen overnight’’.
Principals’ Federation president Whetu Cormick said the pressure on Ma¯ ori teachers, particularly at the beginning of their careers, was immense.
Many mainstream Ma¯ori schoolteachers were being asked to juggle their normal teaching responsibilities while being lumbered with extra duties, which took their toll.
‘‘Unconsciously, principals and other teachers lean heavily on the te reo Ma¯ ori teacher to help, and they will help. But over time, what happens is that it becomes too much – then they leave.
‘‘There are workload issues, stress as well. Young teachers are typically working two to four years and then leaving the profession and going off and working in corporate ... earning more money and having less stress,’’ Cormick said.
Victoria University Te Kura Ma¯ori senior lecturer Dr Hiria McRae had a similar experience while teaching at a Ma¯ ori medium primary school.
‘‘I was put into a senior management position at quite a young age without the wrap-around support,’’ McRae said.
Colleague and associate professor Joanna Kidman said the demand for te reo Ma¯ori speakers made them a marketable commodity.
She believed building a ‘‘critical mass’’ of te reo speakers ‘‘at all levels of education’’ was crucial if the problem was to be fixed.
Davis said that while December’s funding boost would help address ‘‘immediate teacher supply pressures’’, teaching stock needed to be ‘‘deliberately grown’’.
As that process continued, Ma¯ ori medium schools were having to train their own staff to meet demand.
‘‘Kids come through kohanga, they go to the kura as young people and then they become a teacher.
‘‘I’ve had many conversations with wha¯ nau associated with kura saying: ‘We’re training our own, because that’s the only way we can get teachers,’’’ Cormick said.
Among them was Wellington’s Te Puna Reo o Nga¯ Ka¯ kano early childhood centre.
Co-tumuaki Erin Robertson recently advertised two positions in the Education Gazette.
While one was filled by contacting wha¯nau, the second vacancy – for an unqualified teacher – closed for a second time on Thursday with only a handful of applications.
‘‘We would ideally have everybody early childhood-trained, but we know there aren’t enough people out there that fit our kaupapa, that have the reo and the early childhood qualification.
‘‘But then, on top of that, we can’t afford to have all of our kaiako who are fully trained ... being fluent and having those qualifications is pretty rare,’’ Robertson said.