Children lose out as teacher shortage deepens

High school students are being taught maths and science by teachers without specialised skills as schools struggle to fill gaps created by a worsening teacher shortage.

Schools are also being forced to drop or transfer some of their courses to outside providers, a survey by the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) has found.

It’s all part of a ‘‘perfect storm’’ hitting schools, as the teaching work force ages, fewer teachers are willing to step into middlemanagement roles and fewer people are graduating as teachers.

‘‘It is a crisis if you’re a kid in school and you don’t have a teacher . . . [trained] in a speciality in front of you,’’ PPTA vice-president Melanie Webber said.

She believed the situation would get worse before it would get better. ‘‘We’ve got a perfect storm waiting to happen . . . and no-one’s paying attention to it.’’

The Education Ministry acknoledged there had been a tightening of the labour market for primary and secondary teachers, but said the level of vacancies remained relatively low as a percentage of the total work force.

Secondary Principals’ Association president Michael Williams said the survey’s findings were not a surprise, and the teacher shortage was ‘‘pretty severe’’.

Schools were making do, but students were not getting the scope of curriculum they deserved. For instance, he had heard of one school dropping its robotics course in the senior school because it could not find a teacher to take it.

‘‘It’s still a good solid traditional curriculum covering the bases, but not adding the richness. ‘‘It’s adequate, but not great.’’ Canterbury West Coast Principals’ Association president Phil Holstein hoped the issue would be alleviated as more teachers graduated from Canterbury University in the next three years. The issue certainly existed in Canterbury, and principals were in discussions with the university, he said.

The university recognised the need to promote teaching as a ‘‘first option’’, and encouraged students into teaching careers at an earlier stage. ‘‘Many people come to teaching as a second or third career after already doing something else.’’

Math and science students, for example, often pursued other paths and, while that depth of understanding was useful, people needed to consider teaching a ‘‘first-choice career’’, he said.

The number of teaching students was growing though, which could help solve the problem that had plagued secondary schools for years, he said.