Teaching enrolments decline, renewing shortage concerns

Teaching shortages have seen worsening conditions in the education sector, with some schools reporting having to send students home and others saying they cannot attract qualified staff.

Despite interim measures, the shortages look to continue as colleges report declining enrolments for their teaching programmes.  

According to Ministry of Education data, the total number of people studying at least one education course has fallen by around 7000 people in the last decade. 

Read the latest print edition of School News online HERE. 

The number of people pursuing teacher training has decreased by over 2700 in the same period.  

Te Pūkenga has seen record low numbers of first-year teaching students enrolled this year. 

Chris Abercrombie, president of PPTA Te Wehengarua says the trend is worrying.  

“We know there’s a worsening shortage of secondary teachers here in New Zealand and it’s really concerning to see those numbers decreasing.”  

Abercrombie said pay and conditions need to improve.  

“We know that pay and conditions have been eroded over that time period.”

Minister of Education Erica Stanford has said that the government is moving to make teaching a more attractive career. Recent initatives to boost teacher numbers include putting primary teachers on the straight to residence pathway. Alongside this change, the Ministry has increased investment to the School Onsite Training Programme (SOTP).

“We need to focus on on-site training, scholarships and encouraging young people into teaching,” said Stanford.  

The Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand said it was committed to help address workforce shortages through working with the Ministry of Education, unions and other stakeholders.  

“Some of the short-term initiatives include temporary policy changes to registration policies to make it easier for ex-teachers to return to teaching, either as fulltime teachers or as relievers, and attracting more qualified, skilled and experienced overseas trained teachers to come to New Zealand.” 

Maths requirement will impact enrolments, say providers  

From next year, the Literacy and Numeracy for Adults Assessment Tool (LNAAT) will become a prerequisite for entry to postgraduate and multiyear tertiary programmes.  

Teacher education providers say this new requirement will worsen shortages by slashing enrolment numbers.  

Although the LNAAT will be a good measure of maths ability, lecturers say students should be required to pass it during their studies, rather than as an entry requirement.  

The University of Otago has been using the LNAAT for 15 years. Otago’s associate dean of initial teacher education, Naomi Ingram, says the test is close to the level of knowledge primary teachers would require. However, “we’ve got 15 years of data to show that the first time they attempt this assessment our primary teachers in our initial teacher education programme, about half of them pass it. 

“Some of these people might be older students who just haven’t done fractions for a while or there might be people that have genuine gaps in their knowledge. 

“It’s going to have a massive impact on teacher supply and teacher supply is a problem in primary so I’m very concerned about that.” 

Joce Nuttall, the chair of the universities’ Council of Deans of Education said they were concerned about the requirement’s effect on enrolment, too.  

“Students who have to sit the test before they get into teacher education… if they don’t pass the test we may lose them. 

“We’d really like to see the test incorporated within our courses rather than something that’s required prior to entry. That would bring us in line with very similar testing systems in Australia.” 

The Teaching Council says the decision to make the LNAAT an entry requirement was in line with consultation. Candidates are allowed two attempts, with the second held a month after the first. Providers could also ask for exemptions, which means they can offer post-entry assessment for candidates who had other strong attributes.  

The Council said that partly due to these mitigating factors it expects the requirement will only have a “modest impact” on the enrolment numbers. 

“We will, however, work with the Ministry of Education as the mathematics entry requirement policy is implemented to achieve the best possible understanding of teacher supply impacts and we will consider changes to the policy settings if needed.”