UNLEASH

ED

Tag: teacher shortage

  • It’s Time to Teach Back Home

    Great to see the NZ Government finally getting on board with the latest NZEI slogan “It’s time”.

    Of course, they tried to be cool with it, and put in a New Zullund accent in the spelling – “It’s Toym to Come Home and Teach in New Zealand”.

    In the latest effort from the Government to try and lure teachers back home, the first website has been launched.

    https://teachbackhome.co.nz

    The fancy graphics and videos can’t have been cheap.

    The site goes to outline the incentives to come back to New Zealand and teach.

    • Up to $7000 relocation grant (limited number)
    • Three agencies to assist you finding a job “…in Auckland” (and in other parts of the country!).
    • A child willing to give you their lunch (Seriously!?)
    • Videos of teaching happening in New Zealand.
    • The lack of security checks for weapons in New Zealand schools (Seriously!?).
    • A list of a few latest job listings from the Education Gazette and a link to take you there to see more.
    • A list of registration requirements before you can teach in New Zealand.

    Yes there is a degree of humour in the recruitment drive – but it treats it like a bit of a joke, which isn’t entirely ideal.
    But at what cost? Just looking through the site, there are several areas where the $10 million dollars for recruitment is being spent

    • Website design – probably exorbitant given the visual media costs and prior history of prices paid for websites by the Government.
    • $5K and $7K relocation grants
    • Ministry of Education “contracted recruitment agents”.
    • Several student story videos and other video media.

    However; the grants were already in place PRIOR to the $10million dollar scheme, as per this article: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11981974

    Of course, there are other costs involved as well, and it speaks volumes when those that have returned to teach here are then let down by the system and have since quit! Not exactly the best advertisement.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11924965

    I certainly hope that this isn’t the only plan to address the teacher shortage. Hopefully it’s low down on the initiatives.

    It’s time to start valuing the Teaching profession – make it a viable career, with appealing pay and career prospects. Reduce the workload and motivate the current teachers enough to tell the world about what an awesome job they have, rather than how tough it is at the moment. Don’t offer us a child’s lunch or suggest that not having to walk through a metal detector is what makes our education system the best in the world.

  • More pupils, less teachers

    South Canterbury primary schools are full to the brim for next year but finding enough teachers to teach them is a different story.

    For many of the region’s schools, 2019 is going to be a “bumper” year, with enrolments either nearing or at full capacity, principals say.

    However, recruiting teachers to cover this influx or replace those who are leaving has been a greater challenge.

    While St Joseph’s Timaru School only had to recruit one teacher, principal Carmel Brosnahan-Pye said “it wasn’t easy”. “It’s[recruiting teachers] definitely an increasing issue in South Canterbury,” Brosnahan-Pye said.

    Beaconsfield School principal Hamish Brown echoed Brosnahan-Pye’s comments saying finding new teachers has “changed dramatically over the last couple of years”.

    Despite this, most schools have been able to recruit the teachers they need, although Timaru Christian School is re-advertising​ one of its 2019 positions.

    While principal Bethany Rentoul would not say why, as the process was ongoing, she did say that the school had “filled three other positions recently”.

    “We have received fewer applications for positions overall, over the past few interview rounds, and there has been a big increase in the number of overseas teachers applying,” Rentoul said.