New border exception for 300 teachers announced

Saturday, 3 July 2021

Education Minister Chris Hipkins says the exception will give principles more additional support.

A new border exception will let 300 qualified overseas teachers into the country, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced on Saturday.

Hipkins said that while the domestic teacher supply remained positive, ECE services and schools continued to find it difficult to recruit teachers for certain subjects and in certain locations.

“This will give principals and services additional support, especially for 2022 recruitment, and complement existing teacher supply initiatives.'

The Ministry of Education will work with the education sector to ensure that ECE services and schools with the greatest recruitment needs got priority and will invite applications for these teachers from September, he said.

* Fears $151m pay bump for early childhood teachers might not entirely go to salaries

Te Ao - Māori News reporter checks in whānau and tamariki in a South Auckland kura promoting te reo Māori me ōna tikanga as the educational way of life for Kiwi kids.

* Celebrities support early childhood teachers demanding pay parity

Teachers that had left the country and found themselves unable to return due to the border closures might also be eligible.

“A separate family reunification border exception is being created for the partners and dependent children of teachers who are already in New Zealand on temporary visas.

“A lot of families were separated when border restrictions were put in place to protect New Zealand from Covid-19 and we know this has been hard for them. We’re pleased we’re at last able to reunite teachers with their families.”

Teachers already in New Zealand will also be able to request to bring in their partners and dependent children for the duration of their visa.

State or state-integrated schools and kura that were decile 1-3, considered ‘hard to staff’ or in need of teachers in shortage areas, such as science, technology and maths, would be eligible, as would early learning services that were decile 8-10 on the heath deprivation index.

The Ministry would work with the education sector to ensure early learning services, schools and kura with the greatest need were prioritised.

Melanie Webber, president of PPTA Te Wehengarua, the union for principals and teachers, said it was pleased the Government was recognising that there was a staffing shortage and wasn’t being solved by Covid-19.

“What we're really hopeful for is that the Government will start to properly fund teachers to be trained here because we have issues when we can't provide teachers into schools. There are some amazing overseas teachers but they do struggle often coming into a New Zealand context.”

There were not enough teachers being trained in the right areas such as science, math and te reo Māori, and schools didn’t have the retention they needed. Shortages were generally in lower decile areas.

The exception was a good start but would not solve the teacher shortage crisis, says chief executive of the Early Childhood Council Peter Reynolds. (File)

“You can't get te reo Māori teachers from overseas,” Webber said.

The union was also pleased about the family reunification element as it had been tough on teachers who had come out before the borders closed, she said.

Border exceptions have previously been announced for agricultural workers, film workers, and wealthy investors among others.

Earlier on Saturday Hipkins said the Government was considering buying a couple of hotels being used for managed isolation to convert them into full time facilities, since it was likely the country would require MIQ capabilities over the medium to long term.

The Early Childhood Council also welcomed the announcement.

“In a severe teacher crisis, this is a real boost,” said the council's chief executive Peter Reynolds.

“This will come as a relief for providers desperate to recruit, and those who’ve already offered overseas teachers jobs but couldn’t secure MIQ spots.”

Reynolds said the council was keen to work with Immigration NZ to make sure some of the pre-pandemic barriers to entry in early learning didn’t slow them down.

“These are great steps, but won’t solve the teacher shortage on their own. We’d like this momentum to continue with a subsidy package for relievers and moves to attract new talent to our sector.”

The long term effects of the shortage include the high cost of ongoing recruitment and temporary teacher costs and counter-productive competition for teachers, he said.