Schools ‘scrambling’ for relief teachers as shortage slams Canterbury

Wednesday, 7 August 2024

A nationwide shortage of relief teachers is forcing some Canterbury schools to combine classes, or ask teacher aides or senior school leaders to step in front of the class.

One teacher relief service says it is the busiest it has been in three decades, with twice the demand and half the number of relief teachers, while a national service has recorded a 30% jump in the listings for Canterbury

Some principals say the spiralling demand is partly due to an increase in the number of hours permanent teachers are allocated out of the classroom for paperwork and training, though this is disputed by the national teacher relief agency.

This “classroom release time” (CRT) doubled to 20 hours per full-time teacher per term under the 2023 Primary Teacher’s Collective Agreement and will jump a further five hours next year.

Kaiapoi North School principal Jason Miles said he’d had to merge classes when no teachers could be found, though this was a last resort. He had also hired part-time teachers so he was not “scrambling” for relievers as often.

He said the extra CRT was “wonderful for our teachers”, but combined with winter illnesses was putting “additional pressure” on schools and was not always matched by “the appropriate resourcing”.

Kylie van der Bel, owner of Canterbury primary and intermediate relief teacher service Quick Help, said demand had doubled to a 30-year high, but the number of available relief teachers had halved as they had been “snapped up” permanently to cover CRT increases.

The shortage would worsen next year with further CRT, unless more teachers turned to relieving - a chance to get a foot in the door or, ironically, escape paperwork, she noted.

Rhys Greensill, managing director of staffing service Staff Sync - which places about 60,000 relief teachers a month across Aotearoa - had seen a 28% increase in listings for relief teachers for the first seven months of the year compared to 2022, about 14,000 jobs total.

However, the percentage of CRT and sickness listings hadn’t notably increased, he said.

Lemonwood Grove School principal Blair Dravitski said 10 years ago he could secure a reliever the morning a teacher was absent, but now needed 48 or 72 hours.

He said the profession didn’t have the infrastructure to support the increase in non-classroom time.

However, giving teachers more CRT would make the profession more appealing and attract more teachers overall - principals just had to wait for the balance to swing, he said.

“We’re probably the last region in the country to experience it - Auckland or Whangarei have been doing it tough for quite a long time.”

NZ Relief Teacher Association chairperson Sally Wallwork confirmed there was a “serious shortage” in Canterbury that struck Auckland and Wellington last term.

Schools had hired extra staff to cover CRT, turning to the reliever pool in the first instance. The resulting shortage was “the worst I’ve seen it for years”, she said.

Consequently, children fell behind when they were split into other classes or forced off their usual programmes, and it was “wickedly stressful” for staff trying to avoid illnesses, she said.

As the drain would only worsen next year with more CRT, Wallwork encouraged schools to look after their relievers so they would be “way more likely to work for them” when needed.

Addington Te Kura Taumatua principal Donna Bilas had to pull a teacher off release time and split one class on Tuesday - but that was “an easy day to manage”.

The school turned to its regular relievers to cover CRT, so now securing cover when staff fell sick was “hit or miss”, she said.

Chisnallwood Intermediate principal Justin Fields had scraped by but didn’t think finding relief teachers had “ever been this bad”.

Linwood Avenue principal Gretchen Smith said it was “tricky” to find relief teachers, while Knights Stream principal Mike Molloy said it was “definitely getting harder”.

Te Kōmanawa Rowley principal Graeme Norman had to merge classes once and had a senior leadership member teach classes some days this term due to the shortage.

“Everybody’s snapping up relievers to take them on as full time to cover the CRT, so that’s really shrunk the pool.”

An aide with limited authority to teach had sometimes taught classes - but this meant the pupils she was supposed to help did not get the full care they needed, he said. “[We’re] just going to have to bide our time until we get more relievers.”

More CRT, new policies and new training next year would put further strain on schools, and that “pressure on pressure” on teachers was driving them out of the profession.

Norman said upskilling teachers was good, but some Government directives like requiring all teachers to have NCEA level 2 maths - even art and science specialists - was “pigeon holing”.

“The kids we have now, they are our future. It’s these kids that are our next lot of taxpayers, our next lot of carers, our next lot of workers. We’ve got to stop mucking around with them and making it political, and [instead] make it for their future.”

Ministry of Education workforce hautū (leader) Anna Welanyk said it was up to schools to decide how they used staffing entitlement to cover additional CRT, which had been phased in to give schools planning time.

Schools were used to accommodating to staffing pressure for winter illnesses, and teacher retention in the primary sector was “largely stable” - bar some regional variations, she said.

“We’d encourage schools to contact their local Te Mahau office … for advice if they are experiencing ongoing challenges.”

There had been an increase of 709 day relief teachers for the primary sector over the last three years, with 5916 available in 2023, she said.

However, education union NZEI pointed out this figure was down 28% from the 8236 peak of primary relief teachers in 2011, according to ministry data.