An Analysis of Teacher Shortages

Often teacher shortages are reported in the media. But what is a teacher shortage? According to an OIA response dated 5 October 2009, the Ministry of Education says:

Teacher shortages are determined by the number of teacher vacancies advertised and re-advertised in the Gazette.

A definition, albeit blunt, that is generally useful. It seems to be similar to using the unemployment rate as an indicator of a recession – whether or not one has a job is what matters most.

One reason the definition is blunt is that it doesn’t account for the actual number of apparently qualified candidates. Mathematics teachers are deemed in many places to be in short supply. But I asked one principal of an urban Auckland decile 3 school how many candidates would apply for a Mathematics vacancy. The principal told me that about 160 would apply. This is an apparent paradox. One would think that if there were a shortage there would be few or no candidates applying. But the paradox could be easily explained by schools wanting quality over quantity.

If this is the case it raises questions about the quality of teacher education and whether the right things are being done to address teacher recruitment and retention. It would appear that we are not training enough teachers well enough to the satisfaction of schools, and that simply increasing the number of training places will do little to solve the problem and have prohibitive costs.

The subject breakdown is below. The numbers are percentage of number of secondary and composite vacancies as at 7 September 2009.

Rank	Advertised	Readvertised
1	English 14%	English 21%
2	Mathematics 11%	Mathematics 10%
3	Science 7%	Māori 8%
4	PE 6%	Bilingual/Immersion 8%
5	Technology 5%	Home Economics 6%
6	Social Studies 4%	Music 6%
7	Bilingual/Immersion 4%	Science 5%
8	Māori 4%	Technology 5%

I also have some numbers on Auckland vacancies. However, I am unsure of the interpretation, as even assuming great doubling up in subject duties as single vacancies, the total percentage seems too high. They are also not just for the secondary and composite schools. I will seek further clarification.

Rank	Auckland
1	Technology 55%
2	English 38%
3	Mathematics 37%
4	Music 36%
5	Drama 27%
6	Science 24%
7	Health 18%
8	PE 18%

From the first table we can see that English vacancies are common. Its percentage rises for readvertised vacancies. I interpret that as English vacancies are a little difficult to fill than otherwise would be expected. The TeachNZ website states:

Teacher Recruitment Scholarships (Secondary Subjects)

These scholarships aim to encourage more people into studying to become a secondary teacher in these target subjects where there is the highest need: chemistry, home economics, mathematics, physics, technology and Te Reo Māori.

It is interesting English is not on the list, when it had been in the past and has the biggest shortage. Also the subject would be a high priority given literacy requirements for NCEA go up to level 2 as opposed to level 1 for numeracy requirements for university entrance.

Home Economics may seem an odd subject to be in shortage, but the numbers provided justify it – it is not on the top 8 vacancies overall, but appears difficult to fill as it jumps up into the top 8 readvertised vacancies. Te Reo also is difficult to fill, its proportion doubling when readvertised.

The Looming ECE “Shortage”

The looming staff “shortage” for Early Childhood Education is the result of some impressive lobbying to those in government that the credential arms race be implemented in the ECE sector. With the stroke of a pen, the minister of education could scrap the requirement for teachers who parents have been satisfied with for many years to be forced to retrain merely to enable them to retain their jobs.

Retraining would be an equivalent full time commitment of one to three years with domestic tuition costing around $5000 per year. And then there’s the salary sacrifice. It is simply not viable, especially for those close to retirement or those who teach part time and have other commitments.

There has been talk of some “fast track” process for overseas trained “professionals” as an alternate pathway. The NZEI is of course saying a six week “hothouse” course would not be enough and should be at least a year. A short course like this would be a very effective shortcut for a year long graduate diploma or three year degree. The people lobbying for a “qualified” ECE sector wouldn’t want a shortcut to exist, as it would undermine the agenda of having a highly credentialled ECE sector.

Another reason people will lobby against such a shortcut is that foreigners who have some credentials will be better able to leap in, while locals are stuck having to retrain. A politically untenable situation in a global financial crisis and looming increases in unemployment.

There have been moves a foot to increase the status of teaching in the ECE, primary and secondary sectors. Teachers want more qualified candidates to enter the profession, want it to be as seen as prestigious. But if that were the case, it would be perceived to be as difficult to get into and have high academic cutoffs to apply like medicine or law. But they don’t. However, contrary to popular opinion, they just don’t let anyone into teachers’ college. I know from experience. I applied to two teachers’ colleges in New Zealand and was declined by one of them.