Executive Summary

The Research Division, Ministry of Education administers the Teacher Vacancy Survey annually to provide the Ministry with a snapshot of the number of entitlement staffing vacancies and re-advertised vacancies in schools at the start of Term 1. In 2008, the survey was completed by 95 percent of all state and state-integrated schools.

Results from this year's survey showed that the overall staffing vacancies in New Zealand schools at the beginning of the school year, as a proportion of all entitlement positions, remained at a similar level over the past four years (0.9%). When considering the primary and secondary sectors separately, the proportions of schools with vacancies have dropped for both sectors. However, while the proportion of vacancies to entitlement positions in the primary sector remained the same as the previous year, there was a slight increase in the proportion of vacancies at the secondary level. The subject areas with the highest number of vacancies in secondary schools were Technology, Mathematics, and English.

Re-advertised positions in schools are considered to be an indication of 'hard-to-staff' positions. This year, the proportion of re-advertised positions was higher than the past three years, and had increased for both primary and secondary schools. One in two of all the teaching vacancies in 2008 had been re-advertised. Overall, similar to the previous years, the proportions of vacancies and re-advertised positions were greatest in schools in rural localities, in schools with a higher proportion of Māori students on their roll, and in low decile schools (deciles 1–3).

The survey also examined other sources of teacher supply for New Zealand schools, such as the recruitment of first year (beginning) teachers, and teachers from overseas. In 2008, there was a very slight drop in both the proportion of first year beginning teachers, and the overseas teachers who began teaching in New Zealand for the first time in 2007 or 2008.