Increased funding for Initial Teacher Education: Only part of the solution to the teacher shortage
On the 26 May, the Minister of Education, the Honourable Erica Stanford made a pre-budget announcement of extra funding for the preparation of 1,500 new primary and secondary school teachers over the next four years which equates to 375 new teachers per year. This will add to the existing pool of teachers exiting accredited initial teacher education programmes each year, which in 2022 was 1,445 primary teachers (a 21% decrease from the year before) and 815 secondary teachers (a 20% decrease from the year before) (Education Counts, 2023), making a total of approximately 2,635 new primary and secondary school teachers each year in coming years.
On the face of it, this announcement appears a very positive move. However, taken in light of a recent Teaching Council study (Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023) which found that 58% of teacher respondents reported being likely or very likely to leave the teaching profession in the next five years, those of us hoping to see the teacher shortage in Aotearoa New Zealand alleviated cannot take much solace from this announcement.
While the Teaching Council study included early childhood teachers as well as primary and secondary school teachers, and the Minister’s recent announcement of 1,500 new teachers over the next four years is specific to primary and secondary school teachers, findings from the Teaching Council study are still a cause for huge concern. These findings also provide an indication that an extra 375 teachers per year will not go far enough in alleviating the current and likely growing teacher shortage in primary and secondary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand.
For example, in 2022, there were 63,739 primary and secondary school teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand (Education Counts, 2023a). While the Teaching Council study reported 58% of teachers indicated that they were likely or very likely to leave the teaching profession in the next five years, if even half that percentage (24%) of primary and secondary teachers left, this would involve approximately 15,297 primary and secondary teachers leaving over this period of time (or approximately 3,000 teachers per year). This is worrying given that applicants into initial teacher education have fallen 28% in the last 17 years. If this fall continues, we can assume that we will still be short hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of teachers to support learners in Aotearoa.
But it is not just the numbers not adding up that cause concern – here we come to the crux of the matter. This government may be either consciously or unconsciously refusing to address the underlying reasons for the teacher shortage in Aotearoa New Zealand. These reasons are well-known and well-reported, both in New Zealand and internationally. We, along with other similar countries around the world are having difficulty attracting quality applicants to the teaching profession because of the reported:
Working conditions of teachers and in particular, their growing workloads and the unreasonable demands being placed on them as part of the role. This includes growing administration tasks, large class sizes, limited support to work with very diverse student populations, and the lack of flexibility in the role.
Financial renumeration that does not match the demands of the role or qualifications required for the role.
Range of other roles available to people with tertiary qualifications that pay more, are more flexible, and have lower workloads.
It is also worth noting that the recent Teaching Council study found that teachers report feeling a lack of status or validation for the role of teacher in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is a very important finding in light of recent government announcements in relation to literacy and numeracy. When successive governments interfere with the profession of teaching, by for example, telling teachers how they must teach, they contribute to these feelings reported by teachers. As one respondent pointed out, government ministers would not tell doctors how to operate on patients (Teaching Council of Aotearoa NZ, 2023).
The Minister may be grasping at low-hanging fruit by simply providing funding for more initial teacher education placements. While this funding is obviously welcome, it needs to go hand in hand with addressing the real reasons why we are not attracting sufficient quality people into the teaching profession. It is unfathomable that the Minister is not aware of these reasons, so it can only be assumed that the problem is considered too big and/or too difficult to solve. Yes, it is a big and difficult problem and will likely need complex solutions. However, if these issues are not addressed, no amount of funding to support the preparation of new teachers will help the teacher shortage we are currently experiencing.
References
Education Counts (2023). Initial teacher education numbers 2022.
https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/initial-teacher-education-statistics
Education Counts (2023a) Teacher numbers 2022. Available from:
https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/teacher-numbers
Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (2023). A snapshot of the teaching profession Available from https://teachingcouncil.nz/assets/Files/Publications/Snapshot-of-the-teaching-profession-2023.pdf
The Equity Through Education Centre at Massey University is a group of educational researchers and practitioners working to promote a fair and equitable education system in Aotearoa New Zealand.