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MAY 8, 2025
Find me a teacher... By Jon Rawlinson
King Country schools are feeling the impact of a teacher shortage. “It’s impossible, absolutely impossible to find a teacher at the moment,” Āria School principal, Pam Voyce, said. “There are no teachers, there’s a serious shortage in this country.” Short term solutions are possible but, invariably, these involve larger class sizes and more pressure on staff, she said. Her rural school, with just over 50 pupils has three teachers and there is an urgent need for a principal release teacher so Voyce can concentrate on her leadership duties. “We’re having to cover with teacher aides and I’m having to teach more and more because I don’t have
a staff member to cover my class,” she says. “Thank goodness we have some very good teacher aides, but this isn’t the best solution. We’re just having to make it work by paddling our own waka.” Piopio College has witnessed an increase in student numbers after years of decline – but it is struggling to fill its staffroom. Principal Ben Draper told The News earlier this year how hard it had been to recruit. Voyce said better pay would not necessarily attract more to the profession, at least not in the short term. Instead, a wider view was needed to understand why some many of those who can don’t teach. “Who wants to be a teacher? Once upon a time,
if you went to a Year 13 class, heaps of the students would be going into teacher training, but now it’d be more like just one or two, if that. There are just too many other options that are much more exciting and they probably come with lesser workloads.” It was not a country problem – it was a problem across the country, Voyce said. In February an Education Ministry report suggested an additional 750 primary teachers and 500 secondary teachers – equating to about two per cent of the regular teaching workforce was are likely to be needed during 2025. “We’ve probably increased the number of students in the past year by 25 per cent at least. I’ve been here 25 years as principal – it’s up
and down but generally we stay about the same. We can’t attract teachers if they aren’t there and the urban schools have the same issues.” Asked if the Ministry of Education could do more to attract and train teachers from overseas, Voyce provides suggested “one would think these people in high places might have already done that, wouldn’t you... given that this situation hasn’t just happened, it’s been brewing for a long time?” While some teachers from overseas may be able to hit the ground running, most require training to, at the very least, understand New Zealand’s curriculum. “It would be great if the Ministry of Education could offer incentives to overseas staff – and there’s probably
Medals for a pair King Country’s two New Year’s Honours recipients Richard Steele, of Ōwhango, and Paul Malpass (left) of Taumarunui attended investitures on different days in Wellington last week to receive their medals from Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro. Steele received the King’s Service Medal for his services to the rural community while Malpass became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to health.
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a heap trying to get into New Zealand – but we need training in place so that they’re fit for purpose,” Voyce said. “It’s a huge workload to bring them up to speed and, in a small school, we don’t have the personnel to do that.” Education minister Erica Stanford has announced the government would help cover teacher registration and practising certificate fees. However, red tape is still tying hands, Voyce says. “They keep claiming they’re making it easier to re-register people returning to teaching, but we have a teacher who’s been away for more than five years and is now teaching just one day a week, so she has to redo her registration. It’s become an absolute drama. This is their so-called easy transition back into the teaching
Pam Voyce
workforce.” Voyce says while the NZ Educational Institute Te Riu Roa could support teachers, “it can’t create them”. “The union’s good. I have total faith in our union and they’re doing their bit to improve conditions, but there’s a limit to how much they can do. They can’t just ‘make’ teachers.”