Educators join forces to address workforce crisis once and for all

Connor Baird has been a teacher for nine years. In that time, he’s already burnt out, left the school system, and returned.
“As Maori, being part of a system that we can all acknowledge is systematically racist, and upholding that system, and watching that same system push through generations of Māori tamariki – it’s a pretty crappy feeling … got a bit too much for me, and I just kind of said: ‘eff this’.”
Now, as a deputy principal of Onslow College, Baird is part of an education workforce collective looking for solutions to the country’s workforce crisis.
Ministry of Education modelling shows teacher supply is expected to meet or exceed demand for primary schools between 2024 and 2026, while noting there is inequitable distribution, meaning some schools and communities are struggling to get teachers.
Meanwhile, the supply of secondary teachers is projected to broadly meet demand from 2024 to 2026, if reality matches the modelling of a high- or medium-supply scenario, but not a low-supply scenario.
It’s a technical way of saying the ministry’s projections suggest there are broadly enough teachers to meet demand, while also acknowledging there are shortages in some subjects, including sciences, technology, maths and te reo Māori, as well as workforce shortages in bilingual and Māori medium sectors.
The ministry also says because the projections are done at a national level they don’t always capture the ongoing recruitment issues faced by some schools and communities.
But principals and teachers on the frontline say staff shortages are the rule rather than the exception. And years-long issues recruiting, training and retaining teachers have come to a head.
Some schools have not been able to find a single relief teacher in months, and it’s increasingly common to hear of unfilled vacancies, two classes being merged into one, and principals being forced to step into the classroom.
Meanwhile, overseas recruitment isn’t a silver bullet, with a global teacher supply shortage – and more attractive salaries overseas – making it difficult to draw educators to New Zealand.
“The profession itself has kind of lost its mana, in a sense that people aren’t valuing teachers as they once perhaps were,” Baird says.
The under-valuing and de-professionalising of teachers was a central theme of the first day of a two-day teacher supply summit, with many noting the poor pay and conditions that act as a barrier to recruitment and retention.
“Weirdly, in our society, mana is signalled through pūtea – through money – and the lack of money associated with this job … If you’re looking at a superficial understanding of how the job is valued, which is money, it’s completely undervalued,” Baird says.
Recent campaigns, including during industrial action, have made the country hyper-aware of what the job involves.
“Teachers haven’t necessarily been quiet about that in our fight to gain recognition, but that’s been a double-edged sword. Through that fight for recognition, the public’s also become incredibly perceptive of how difficult the mahi is.”
Beginning teacher Logann Russell, who will be fully registered at the end of the year, says the job creep puts pressure and stress on teachers, who are expected to work long hours and be available to answer parent emails at all hours.
“When you’re Māori or Pasifika you wear 17 million hats and at times it can be ‘dial a Māori’: We’ve got a mihi whakatau – you’re in charge of that; we’re doing kapa haka – you’re in charge of that; or we’ve got a translation – can you check it before I send it off?”
These expectations are on top of the daily challenges in the classroom, and increasing neurodiversities and behavioural issues students are experiencing.
Those at the summit say while teachers are being held to account for highly visible test scores that have seen literacy and maths achievement take a hit, no-one is attempting to address the broader system issues underpinning these outcomes.
“It’s like putting a bandaid on a broken bone,” Russell says.
NZEI Te Riu Roa president Mark Potter says workforce issues have been building to breaking point for a while. This crisis hasn’t come from nowhere and it won’t be solved quickly.
“This country has not trained enough teachers for a long time. It’s going to pay a price for that soon. What we’re trying to do is make sure that price is not as high as it’s going to be if we do nothing.”
Potter reiterates what others at the summit voiced on the first day: teachers haven’t failed; the system has failed.
“The perception of teachers has been used as a point-scoring thing for people that will never have to teach. They’re never hurt by the damage they do, and then they walk away.”
The two-day summit includes 19 organisations, which represent teacher unions, education peak bodies across ECE, primary and secondary school, and initial teacher training providers. And for the first time, they have reached consensus.
The 50 people who gathered at the tables in NZEI’s national office in Wellington on Monday and Tuesday agree there is a workforce supply issue, and that a long-term plan that spans political cycles and even generations is needed.
During the same week as Kīngi Tūheitia’s tangi, Potter is calling for the approach championed by the Māori king: kotahitanga (unity) and a long-term vision for the future of tamariki and rangatahi.
It’s too early to say what the solutions will be; if it was that easy, the summit wouldn’t be happening. But Potter is confident they will succeed where others have failed.
“Well, if you don’t think you can, you might as well go home.”
In 2021, NZEI released an independent review of staffing in primary schools. It canvassed the state of the sector, but it also painted a vision for a future of schools with lower student-to-teacher ratios, adequate specialist staff, and time for professional development and administrative work. But like so many surveys and reports before it, Pūaotanga was put into the too-hard (and too expensive) basket to gather dust.
Each time there’s a workforce crunch, one of these reports is dusted off and one or two initiatives are cherry-picked in the hope it’ll make a difference. Potter says some of them work in the short-term, but within a decade the glamour wears off and the government of the day reaches for the next quick fix.
In this year’s Budget, the Government invested $53 million in teacher supply initiatives.
These include expanding on-the-job teacher training, using relocation grants and finders’ fees to attract overseas teachers, and supporting a programme that matches beginning and returning teachers with schools facing recruitment or retention challenges.
Stanford, who is also responsible for immigration, added secondary teachers on the fast track to residency soon after becoming minister.
Between January and July, 113 primary teachers came into New Zealand, a 40 percent increase on the same period for 2023, while 359 secondary teachers arrived during the same time period, a 54 percent increase from last year.
Stanford says developing the workforce of the future is one of her key priorities and she has tasked the ministry with creating a comprehensive strategy.
“I know growing our fantastic teacher workforce is one of the most important and pressing issues schools are facing.”
She also notes the ministry data shows the retention rate is sitting steady at 90 percent, and some teachers move between schools rather than leave the profession completely.
During this week’s wānanga, sector representatives have deliberately steered away from “admiring the problem” and sharing bad luck stories. All communities have them, and there are schools and centres struggling to attract and retain good staff, but the problem is already well-known, Potter says.
Instead, this group of so-called “snowballing allies” is focused on solutions.
“And we need to have everyone buy into that, including the political parties, because one of the biggest barriers to having effective teacher workforce supply is political point scoring.”
That means spending beyond any Cabinet’s budget, Potter says.
“You can’t tell anyone in that room we can’t afford it, when you can give $3 billion of tax cuts to landlords; you give a quarter of a billion dollars in tax cuts to big tobacco. It’s not that you can’t afford it, you’re just not prepared to pay for it.”
Those represented at the summit believe lifting teacher pay and value is achievable because we’ve been there before. Teachers in New Zealand were paid competitive rates and it was once seen as a desirable profession.
“We need to shift that dial. Because it used to be that teachers were respected in New Zealand, the dial is shifted … we have to shift it back.”
In order to address the problem, the sector group is looking to dig into the detail of the three phases plaguing the workforce: recruitment, training and retention.
All three areas are suffering at the moment, with fewer students entering initial teacher education; questions and politics surrounding how (and what) teachers are taught, which organisations teach the teachers and who oversees that; and how to keep teachers from burning out, quitting, or moving overseas.
Skye Barbour is studying early childhood education at Victoria University of Wellington and says her first placement at a Wellington centre went well.
But she’s not naive to the realities of the job. ECE teachers are often viewed as “basically babysitters”, regardless of their qualifications and experience.
She says this lack of recognition of the work, and the importance of the first thousand days of a child’s life, could be “really demoralising”.
Barbour says both her parents are teachers, so she came into the sector with her eyes open. But it’ll take support and recognition to keep her in teaching.
ECE retention rates are not tracked, but a 2023 NZEI survey found 38 percent of ECE teachers frequently thought about leaving the sector, 30 percent said they occasionally thought about it and just 16 percent never thought about it.
The number of students enrolling in ECE has not risen in recent years, despite rising demand. And more students are dropping out, with just 68 percent of ECE graduates completing an initial teacher training bachelor’s degree, compared with 84 percent in 2016. 
Meanwhile, in 2018, union surveys found almost half of all high school teachers quit within their first five years, and 20 percent of primary teachers. This is data the ministry doesn’t track.
In 2023 NZEI Te Riu Roa said 40 percent of principals were in their first three years of being principals, due to high rates of turnover.
Mackenzie Valgre is completing a master’s degree in secondary education at Victoria University of Wellington and says working conditions are the biggest factor in attracting and retaining teachers.
Valgre, whose father is also a teacher, says she’s already seen the gap between best-practice pedagogy and what teachers are being forced to deliver in classrooms, due to difficult conditions.
“Teachers’ working conditions are children’s learning conditions.”
Until the pay and conditions are addressed teachers will keep leaving the profession, she says.
While the profession is grappling with workforce issues – something it believes had been created by successive governments over years – this Government is making big changes.
Teachers and principals have been vocal in their criticism of the speed of change, and what many see as a one-size-fits-all approach.
Most recently, Stanford announced she would bring forward the start date for the new maths curriculum by a year.
This, is in addition to the rollout of the new structured approach to literacy.
So far, Stanford had been unapologetic about the rate of change, saying dire literacy and numeracy results – and the impact the problem had on a student’s prospects – is reason enough to forge ahead.
But principals – representing thousands of teachers across the country – have penned a collection of open letters to the minister and the Government calling on them to slow down and properly consult with the sector.
A survey from the NZ Principals’ Federation has found 85.5 percent of the 1094 schools surveyed do not support the implementation of both the new literacy and maths curriculums at the start of 2025. 
And 89.1 percent, or 976 principals would support the option to focus on either literacy or maths in 2025, but not both.
However, Stanford tells Newsroom she’s received “nothing but positive feedback so far”.
In May, the federation said schools were increasingly concerned about the pace of change being imposed on them, without critical consultation with the sector. 
“First came cell phone bans, next one hour each of reading, writing and maths, then attendance, and now, we are being directed to implement a structured literacy approach,” federation president Leanne Otene said at the time.
“Meaningful collaboration and thoughtful planning are essential to fostering sustainable improvements in our education system,” she said.
“There is no short-term fix. To be successful, we need a carefully crafted, long-term, funded strategy, built in collaboration with the profession.”
And last month, following the announcement about the implementation of the new maths curriculum from the start of 2025, the federation again urged broader consultation, professional development, and a slow-down in the rollout.
What followed was a stream of similar statements from principals’ associations around the country.
Head of the Mana Principals’ Association, Donna McDonald, says while school leaders acknowledge the importance of evolving the education system to meet the needs of all students, the current pace of implementation is unrealistic. 
The tight timelines set by the Government do not account for the practical challenges schools are facing. 
“Staffing shortages already pose a significant hurdle, and now schools are expected to undertake extensive professional development and curriculum adjustments without adequate support.”
Principals from the Wellington region say the pace threatened to undermine schools’ stability.
“We call for a more collaborative process that respects the professional judgment of educators and the voices of our communities,” the group says.
“Our primary focus should be on providing a quality education that meets the needs of every child, not on hastily implemented changes that threaten to undermine the stability of our schools.”
Southland principals say a significant number of principals are having to teach extensively each week, over and above their usual workload to ensure children have a teacher for their class. 
“This additional burden further negatively impacts the ability of principals to effectively lead and implement curriculum changes. The role of the principal is critical in guiding schools through educational shifts, but these extra teaching responsibilities undermine their capacity to fulfil this leadership function.”
Stanford says the ministry has been working on the two new curricula for several years, and many schools have already implemented structured literacy and are ready for mathematics, but she acknowledges about a quarter of schools are starting from scratch.
“This will be a big shift,” she says, adding that the curriculum is detailed and specific to provide clarity to teachers, and there will be resources and training to support the rollout.
“By no means do we expect perfection on day one. Embedding a curriculum refresh, running professional development, and responding to the sector’s feedback are things we will work on together over the coming years,” she says.
“However, the changes are needed because the results need to change, fast. We cannot afford for achievement to continue to slip.”