Many schools at ‘breaking point’: illness, staffing

Schools are at ‘‘breaking point’’, facing a blizzard of winter illnesses, complications created by Covid-19 and a critical shortage of relief teachers.

Many schools are reportedly ‘‘eating through’’ their annual relief teacher budgets – set by their school’s board – despite barely being halfway through the year and with the full force of winter yet to come.

Teachers are also chewing through their sick leave while attempting to get well, and caring for others in their households who may have also been struck down by seasonal sickness or isolating or recovering from Covid-19.

‘‘It’s a bit of a nightmare,’’ New Zealand Principals’ Federation national president Cherie TaylorPatel explained, as she spoke about schools’ ‘‘desperate’’ attempts to find enough teachers to staff classrooms.

‘‘When you’ve got 20% of the teaching workforce away on any given day at the moment, it makes it extremely difficult for schools.

‘‘In regards to Covid, it’s a logistical nightmare really, and it’s coming at schools in waves, and it’s happening in different parts of the country in different weeks.’’

Parents of students at Wellington’s Island Bay School were this week warned classes could be combined, distance learning reinstated and the school closed for a time due to staff shortages.

The situation was described as ‘‘dire’’ by the school’s principal Deborah Fenton. With relief teachers at ‘‘critically low’’ levels, schools were forced to be creative measures to ensure there were teachers at the front of classrooms.

The personnel problem poses financial challenges too.

In non-Covid times, the Ministry of Education would pick up the cost of staff absences after eight days away. While that support now kicks from day five, Taylor-Patel said school boards were still struggling to meet spiralling absence costs.

Ruahine School principal Sarah McCord has plenty of money in her relief teaching budget, but no relievers to spend it on.

On Sunday night, parents of the Dannevirke school were told there were no teachers available to teach its two senior classes for the week.

‘‘We just don’t have enough relieving teachers,’’ McCord said. ‘‘But of course, I know that if we had enough relievers, we would be eating through our budget. There are schools whose budgets have just turned to custard.

‘‘For us, we can’t spend the money if we don’t have the people to put in front of the children.’’

Seasonal sickness is nothing new at this time of year, but McCord said this year was the worst she had seen – one day this week, just seven out of a 25-strong class turned up for lessons.

‘‘Every day, we have been sending children home ... the hard thing is keeping staff here because people are just so unwell.’’

Ministry of Education hautū (leader) of operations and integration Sean Teddy said the latest data on paid teacher sick leave had almost doubled this year compared to 2019.

Data shows teachers have claimed more than 183,000 sick days this year so far – nearly twice as many as in the same period in 2019. This school year to date, the ministry had paid out around $9.7 million in additional relief funding, Teddy said.

As schools reached ‘‘breaking point’’ over critical staffing shortages and massive illness-enforced student absences, Green Party Covid-19 spokesperson Teanau Tuiono called for the Government to implement a Covid-19 action plan for schools.

The plan would include the reintroduction of mask-wearing in classrooms and the provision of free N95 masks for ā konga (students) and kaiako (teachers).

‘‘It’s time for an expert-led plan to support children’s access to education, and protect children, school staff, and their families from Covid-19 and other winter respiratory illnesses,’’ Tuiono said.

‘‘It’s a bit of a nightmare . . . When you’ve got 20% of the teaching workforce away on any given day at the moment, it makes it extremely difficult for schools.

Cherie Taylor-Patel, pictured New Zealand Principals’ Federation national president