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, 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 2004 survey was completed by 95 percent of all schools.

In 2004 vacancies in primary schools declined in comparison to vacancies in previous years. For secondary schools, vacancies in 2004 declined below the level of vacancies experienced in 2002 and 2003. Thirty-nine percent of secondary schools had vacancies at the beginning of the school year compared with 43 percent at the same time in 2003. The vacancies within these schools represented 1.4 percent of all entitlement positions in secondary schools, down from 1.7 percent in 2003.

Compared with 2003, fewer primary and secondary schools appeared to have difficulty in filling their vacancies in 2004. The number of re-advertised vacancies, considered to be an indication of positions which are 'hard to staff', represented a fifth (20.5%) of all primary vacancies (down from 24.2% in 2003) and just over half (51.0%) of all secondary vacancies (down from 54.0% in 2003). 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, decreased across both sectors in 2004. Re-advertised vacancies in primary schools decreased from 0.3 percent of all entitlement positions in 2003 to 0.2 percent in 2004. In secondary schools re-advertised positions decreased from 0.9 percent in 2003 to 0.7 percent in 2004.

Further results from the survey in 2004 indicated that:

• The Napier (1.7% of all entitlement positions) Ministry of Education local office area recorded the highest proportion of vacancies in 2004, although there was a slight decline in the proportion of vacancies in Napier compared to 2003 (1.8%). Auckland North (0.6%) and Wellington (0.6%) areas recorded the highest proportion of re-advertised vacancies followed by Rotorua, Napier and Invercargill each recording 0.5 percent of re-advertised vacancies. As in 2003, Dunedin experienced the lowest proportion of vacancies (0.7%) and re-advertised vacancies (0.1%) in 2004.
• The proportion of vacancies and re-advertised vacancies were greater in schools with larger concentrations of Māori students and in schools in lower socio-economic areas (deciles 1-3 schools).
• A smaller proportion of lower decile schools (deciles 1-3) reported experiencing vacancies (17.5%) and re-advertised vacancies (7.3%) in 2004 than was the case in 2003, when 18.9 percent of these schools reported having vacancies and 7.7 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 (53% of all primary vacancies were covered in this way) and secondary (55%) schools. This measure was used to a slightly greater extent by both sectors in 2004 than in 2003.
• The subjects areas most sought after in secondary schools in 2004 were English (17.6% of vacancies), technology (12.8%) and science subjects (14.0%).
• Thirty-seven percent of all secondary entitlement vacancies attracted salary units for curriculum leadership (also referred to as 'management units'); a similar proportion to those recorded in 2002 and 2003.
• There were 1,168 overseas teachers (who had taught for the first time in New Zealand in 2002, 2003, or 2004) teaching here at the beginning of 2004. More than three-quarters (76.1%) of these teachers were teaching in secondary schools.
• The number of first year beginning teachers declined in primary schools in 2004 compared to the last two years (from 1,556 in 2003 to 1,319 in 2004) but the number of beginning secondary school teachers increased (from 968 to 1,029).
• 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 Auckland South, Invercargill and Hamilton local office areas.