Schools struggle to staff classes amid relief teachers 'crisis'

Schools are struggling to staff classes as an ongoing shortage of relief teachers means some educators are having to combine classes.

Bluestone School principal Darren Smith described the situation as a "crisis" after three teachers were out sick in the last week and he was unable to find a reliever.

"We feel a bit like we're just a babysitting minding service, we aren't able to offer the quality of education we know the Government would like to see us providing."

The three classes were instead split and merged with others, putting as many 38 students in a room at one time. Each one was packed, with many students doing their learning on the floor.

"I've never seen this in education in all my time in teaching," Smith said.

"We're all struggling to beg, steal and borrow from each other to find enough people to cover our needs in our schools."

Recently, the Timaru school advertised a teacher's position and received no applicants.

"I could see that we could soon be in a position where, without wanting to, we may have to let families know that we can't offer classes for the day," Smith said.

Release time allows teachers to get out of the classroom for tasks like planning for lessons. It was recently increased for many teachers in New Zealand following a deal negotiated in a collective bargaining agreement.

Smith is supportive of the move, but said it created an increased need for relievers and that there was often competition between schools to book them.

"Every day just seems like we're having to split classes at the moment."

He said a "real, ramped up" nationwide campaign was needed to drum up interest in teaching and get people to see teaching as a "desirable and worthwhile career choice".

"We want to do a good job, we just need the personnel to do it."

Problems have also been seen in major cities like Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch recently, according to the New Zealand Relief Teachers Association.

Chairperson Sally Wallwork said it now took days to get a relief teacher into a school.

"Previously, you'd be able to call someone and find someone in the morning."

The overall number of relief teachers on the books had remained consistent, she said, but those educators were in serious demand due to combination of winter illnesses and an increase to the amount of release time.

"I think that there is no quick fix for this, and that building really strong support for relievers and providing them with the same support that a full-time teacher gets would really benefit them and it would keep people within the reliever pool," she said.

The Ministry of Education said the number of relievers within the system had increased over the last three years but said there was "regional and local variations in reliever availability".

It added that it was working to increase the overall supply of permanent teachers and that the rate of pay for day relief teachers had increased.

"Some schools may find it difficult to find the staff they need, especially at short notice," a spokesperson said.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said it was hard to "magic up" teachers overnight but that the Government had invested $56m for 1500 new teacher places in Budget 2024.

"We've also instructed the Ministry to work with the Teaching Council to make sure we are getting retired teachers and teachers who are out of service back in more easily and quickly."

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.