Call for independent look at staffing

PPTA president Kate Gainsford is calling for an independent look into school staffing vacancies after the MoE underestimated staffing in 74 per cent of secondary schools.

Claims by the ministry that 99.6 per cent of teaching positions are filled were based on inaccurate figures from a flawed survey, Ms Gainsford said.

The ministry survey was based on roll predictions given to schools in September the previous year – and this year the ministry seriously underestimated the staffing in 74 per cent of secondary schools, she said.

“That is 572 equivalent teaching positions.

“We have had at least three meetings with the ministry to point out the inaccuracies of this survey, but so far nothing has been done to fix these flaws.”

The ministry’s survey provided a very limited picture of the staffing shortages in schools and did not monitor whether a position had been appropriately filled, or even filled at all, Ms Gainsford said.

It also did not count situations where a school has given up advertising the position and dropped a particular subject, she said.

“That’s why we’ve called for an independent body to properly ascertain the staffing situation in schools. If this was done independently then neither the ministry nor PPTA would have to conduct surveys,” she said.

Ms Gainsford also said that in a recession teacher supply would improve temporarily.

“But we need to be looking at the bigger picture or we will lose our best and brightest when economic circumstances pick up,” she said.