One in five teacher training graduates don't work in schools

Thursday, 25 October 2018

One in five trainee teachers don't go on to work in schools, according to Ministry of Education data. (File photo)

One in five teacher training graduates don't end up working in schools – but it's not because schools don't want them, education professionals say.

Key figures in education have reacted to Education Minister Chris Hipkins' comments that schools were reluctant to hire beginning teachers because they needed more support.

Recruitment preferences were not driving New Zealand's teacher shortage, they said. Personal preferences, job stability, and working conditions were considered more likely to affect the workforce.

However, Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) president Jack Boyle said schools had a duty of care 'that they don't just put someone who is upright and breathing in front of students'.

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Education Minister Chris Hipkins says schools need to 'step up' and hire graduates, and ask for help filling vacancies.

Hipkins' comments were not perceived as critical: '[He was] highlighting most of what everybody knows', New Zealand School Trustees' Association president Lorraine Kerr said.

At the New Zealand Principals' Federation annual conference on Wednesday, Hipkins said schools needed to work with recruitment agencies to identify and fill vacancies.

'It's no good schools saying, 'we've got all these vacancies that we can't fill'. They actually need to be alerting the appropriate people who can help fill them. At the moment, schools have been a little slow to do that.

'If they don't take on beginning teachers, then the pool of experienced teachers is going to continue to diminish, so we actually do need schools to step up.'

NZEI president Lynda Stuart says some schools get no applicants for a job and don't have the luxury of preferring experienced staff.

Recruiting issues ran deeper for some schools. 'A lot of [principals] are saying they're getting zero applicants,' New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) president Lynda Stuart said.

Trainee teacher numbers have dropped 40 per cent in recent years.

Hipkins referenced Ministry of Education data that showed four in five 2015 teaching graduates appeared on a school's payroll within a year.

PPTA president Jack Boyle says schools need good teachers, not just someone who is 'upright and breathing', and fixed-term contracts create a lack of job stability.

Ministry deputy secretary Craig Jones said some trainee teachers, like all university graduates, later decided against entering their chosen profession for many reasons. Sector experts said these included travel, further study, maternity leave, or simply deciding 'it's not for them'.

'However, we know there are a number of graduates who are wanting to begin their teaching career who haven't been able to get a placement straight after finishing their degree,' Jones said.

The National Beginner Teacher Project, launched this month, provides 230 grants of $10,000 for mentoring and training costs to schools recruiting beginning teachers, and a similar scheme specific to Auckland will help 62 graduates into their first teaching jobs next year.

According to graduate surveys, 92 per cent of University of Canterbury teaching graduates worked in the education and training industry, while 78 per cent of graduates of Auckland University's Manukau campus worked in education. Victoria University's graduate surveys indicated its rate of employment was 'likely to be more than 90 percent'. Waikato University kept no such data.

Auckland University's head of initial teacher education, Dr Ngaire Hoben, said most graduates wanted to work in schools and were 'overjoyed to get a job'.

But the practice of employing graduates on fixed-term contracts was 'a huge stress', she said.

'Schools want a proven, good quality teacher and graduates are an unknown … This is a market in which [experienced] teachers can make selections about where they go.'

Boyle agreed fixed-term contracts were an issue and affected the profession's attractiveness. Beginning teachers must work two years full time to become registered within five years of graduating or risk retraining.

'You can't get a mortgage if you are in temporary employment and you can't put down roots for the whānau.'

New Zealand Principals' Federation president Whetu Cormick did not return calls.