Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The obvious solution

Auckland schools are complaining about a teacher shortage again:
More than half of Auckland schools are each struggling to fill up to four teaching jobs, a new survey reveals.

Sixty-six per cent of schools across the region took part in the survey, which found more than 50 per cent had three or four teacher vacancies.

Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Kevin Bush said of those, more than half had advertised four or five times, spanning several months, and even then still failed to fill the roles.

He said it was the worst shortage he'd seen in 30 years.


And its entirely unsurprising, in light of stories like this and this. National's housing bubble means that even those on decent wages like teachers can no longer afford to live in Auckland. As for the solution, its called an employment market. If schools can't find enough teachers at the wages they're offering, clearly they need to offer more. If they don't, then they have no-one but themselves to blame if qualified staff pursue better options elsewhere.