Secondary principals struggling with teacher shortages

<h2>A survey of secondary principals highlights worsening teacher shortages&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Shortages are most severe in Auckland but are keenly felt in all major metropolitan areas and affect schools right across the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Secondary Principals’ Council chair James Morris says&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The last survey we did was released in May&comma; and I was extremely concerned then about the scope of the shortages&period; They are worse now&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The problem is that there are not enough teachers&comma; full stop&period; There are not enough maths teachers&comma; physics teachers&comma; tech teachers&comma; English teachers&comma; you name it&period; There are children today who will leave school never having had a qualified specialist maths teacher&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The only way to fix this mess is to make teaching meaningful and respected career that people are proud to pursue&period; I can’t stress enough how important it is to move with urgency to implement solutions&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Secondary Principals’ Association Michael Williams agrees&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If we want a society where children leave school equipped with the skills&comma; confidence&comma; values and knowledge to reach their potential we must have a teaching workforce with the capacity to make that happen&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The findings of this report are dire&semi; older teachers want to retire but can’t&comma; principals are having to make compromised appointments and somehow we need to find around 1480 secondary teachers to fill vacancies before the start of the new school year&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Morris and Williams agree the shortages are at crisis level and urge the government to put in place sustainable ways to attract and keep teachers in the profession&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;