Many graduates fail to get work

New teachers are still struggling to find jobs, despite an apparent shortage of primary teachers.

A report from the Education Ministry's demographic and statistical analysis unit showed that from 2001 to 2006, only half of primary teacher graduates each year have managed to find a job three years after graduating.

Only about a third found a job straight after graduating.

The report, released to the National Party under the Official Information Act, said the employment rate for graduates was not expected to rise above 65 per cent because it was too difficult for schools to employ them in large numbers.

Ideally, the report said, beginning teachers should make up no more than 15% of a school's teaching staff.

Increasing the percentage of beginning teachers in the workforce was "neither practical nor desirable", it said.

About 730 extra teachers would be needed to reduce Year 1 class sizes. However, those teachers needed to be experienced enough to teach new entrants, which the report said was "generally not a task entrusted to beginning teachers".

Beginning teachers do not have a full workload and more experienced teachers must take time out of teaching to mentor the new graduates during their two years as provisionally registered teachers. This can make schools reluctant to employ them.

National Party education spokeswoman Katherine Rich said the figures were shocking.

"I think the Education Minister needs to have a good look at these figures. If we don't work harder to place these graduates, we run the risk of losing them altogether," she said.

"I'm not advocating any one particular solution, but this is a huge problem and we need to look at something to reduce the number of graduates going into other roles."

The problem would worsen as the workforce aged and teachers retired, Rich said.

Ministry spokesman Iain Butler said the rate of graduates entering the profession was expected to increase this year as primary teacher supply tightened, but schools would still be constrained by the number of beginning teachers they could employ.

"For that reason, the ministry is trying to assist schools to recruit New Zealand and overseas-trained teachers with prior experience to fill some of their vacancies," he said.

Initiatives include fast-tracking immigration for foreign teachers, retraining teachers who want to return to the profession and relocation deals for teachers who take jobs in hard-to-staff regions.

New Zealand Principals' Federation president Paddy Ford supported a centrally resourced scheme to keep teachers in the country.

"I recently advertised two jobs at my school and of the 24 applicants, 23 were beginning teachers. I can't employ them all," he said.

"The Government should look at something like attaching teachers to schools. It would be a great way for them to get experience and to keep those teachers in New Zealand."

Incentives to encourage overseas-based teachers to return to New Zealand were good, but he would rather see those teachers stay in the country in the first place.

- © Fairfax NZ News