Executive Summary

Since 1997 the Research Division of the Ministry of Education has undertaken a Teacher Vacancy Survey of all state and state integrated schools at the beginning of each school year to monitor the staffing situation in New Zealand schools. This one-page survey provides the Ministry with a snapshot of the number of entitlement staffing vacancies and re-advertised vacancies in schools at the start of Term 1, how these vacancies are being covered and, in the case of secondary schools only, in what subject areas pressure points are occurring. While school vacancies are also monitored through the March and July roll returns and through the advertisements in the Education Gazette this survey provides the Ministry with valuable vacancy information early in the school year.

The 2003 survey was completed by 97 percent of all schools.

Results from this year show that while vacancies in primary schools remained at a similar level to those experienced in 2002, vacancies in secondary schools continued to increase this year. Forty-three percent of secondary schools had vacancies at the beginning of the school year compared with 38 percent at the same time last year. The vacancies within these schools represented 1.7 percent of all entitlement positions in secondary schools, up from 1.5 percent in 2002.

Both primary and secondary schools appeared to have greater difficulty filling their vacancies this year than they had in previous years. The number of re-advertised vacancies, considered to be an indication of positions which are 'hard to staff' represented a quarter (24.2%) of all primary vacancies that were re-advertised (up from 20.1% in 2002) and over half (54.0%) of all secondary vacancies (up from 42.8% in 2002). The proportion of all schools with re-advertised vacancies, as well as the number of re-advertised vacancies, as a proportion of all entitlement positions, increased across both sectors this year. Re-advertised vacancies in primary schools increased from 0.2 percent of all entitlement positions in 2002 to 0.3 percent in 2003. In secondary schools re-advertised positions increased from 0.7 percent last year to 0.9 percent this year.

Further results from the survey this year indicated that:

• The Invercargill (2.7%) and Whangarei (2.0%) Ministry of Education local office areas again recorded the highest proportion of vacancies in 2003. Whereas the Whangarei area experienced the same level of vacancies as those recorded in 2002 (2.0%), there was a significant increase this year in the number of recorded vacancies for the Invercargill area (up from 1.7% in 2002). These two areas also had the highest proportion of re-advertised vacancies (1.1% and 0.9% respectively), well above the national average of 0.5 percent.
• The proportion of vacancies and re-advertised vacancies were greatest in schools with the largest concentrations of Māori students, in schools in lower socio-economic areas (deciles 1­3 schools) and in schools in rural areas.
• A greater proportion of lower decile schools (deciles 1-3) reported experiencing vacancies (18.9%) and re-advertised vacancies (7.7%) this year than was the case in 2002, when 16.6 percent of these schools reported having vacancies and 5.7 percent re-advertised vacancies.
• The use of trained relief staff (employed for 10 school weeks or less) was the most common measure used to cover vacancies in both primary (52.7% of all primary vacancies were covered in this way) and secondary (52.3%) schools, although this measure was used to a lesser extent by both sectors this year than in previous years.
• The subjects areas most sought after in secondary schools in 2003 were technology (16.0% of vacancies), English (15.8%) and science subjects (15.7%).
• Thirty-eight percent of all entitlement vacancies attracted salary units for curriculum leadership (also referred to as 'management units'), a similar proportion to those recorded in 2001 and 2002.
• There were 897 overseas teachers (who had taught for the first time in New Zealand in 2001, 2002, or 2003) teaching here at the beginning of 2003. Almost three-quarters (72%) of these teachers were teaching in secondary schools.
• The number of first year beginning teachers continued to increase this year, with 2,524 first year teachers employed in schools at the beginning of the 2003 school year (1,556 in primary and 968 in secondary).
• As found in previous surveys, beginning teachers were more likely to be teaching in lower decile schools (deciles 1-3) and in schools with larger concentrations of Māori students.
• The highest proportions of beginning teachers were employed in the Invercargill, Auckland North and Auckland South local office areas.