Latest news with #teacherShortage
RNZ News
a day ago
- General
- RNZ News
ECE centres struggling with underfunding, teacher shortages
Early childhood teachers and managers have said centres are struggling with teacher shortages, low enrolments and insufficient government funding. Some are alarmed by surprise changes to pay parity, and they are worried about what might come next. Education correspondent, John Gerritsen reports.
RNZ News
a day ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Pay changes add more anxiety for ECE sector, struggling with teacher shortages
Photo: 123rf Early childhood teachers and managers say centres are struggling with teacher shortages, low enrolments and inadequate government funding. Some are alarmed by surprise changes to pay parity - the system for giving centres higher subsidies if they pay qualified teachers the same as kindergarten and school teachers. At Aro Valley Preschool in central Wellington senior teacher Bridget Mickelson-Warmouth said the government's half-a-percent funding increase for next year's subsidies and recent changes to pay parity were making people nervous. "Funding is always a big key for community centres. Because we're not-for-profit, all the money that comes in goes back in to making sure that teachers are well-paid, that we're well-resourced, and that we can maintain low ratios and small groups," she said. "It's quite unnerving to find out what's going to happen within our funding space." Aro Valley Preschool senior teacher Bridget Mickelson-Warmouth says it's "unnerving" thinking about funding for the sector. Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen Mickelson-Warmouth said community-run centres were especially vulnerable to pay parity changes because they tended to hire experienced, qualified teachers who were paid at the top of the scale. She said last year's decision to cut relief teachers from the scheme had already had a negative effect. "We actually are finding it harder to get relievers as relief teachers either go into permanent work if they can find it or they can leave the sector altogether. We've had some fantastic relievers recently who are currently retraining in other areas and are going out of early childhood due to the inability to get work or the work that they can get is in places that they don't want to be," she said. Some early childhood centre owners have complained that pay parity was hard to afford because the government funding that supported it was inadequate. Despite that, the number of centres opting into the highest tier of the scheme - which obliged them to offer pay-parity rates to the most experienced staff - grew from about 1000 in 2023 to 1484 in March this year. Auckland early childhood centre owner Vince Grgicevich said pay parity was tricky when it was introduced several years ago, but his biggest challenges were competition and parents keeping children home when they worked from home on Mondays and Fridays. Grgicevich said centres tended to have fewer children attending on Mondays and Fridays, which saved parents money but made early childhood centre staffing difficult. "Numbers have improved a little bit but they are still not back up to where we used to sit at 90-95 percent across the board. Our centres sit anywhere between 70 and 80 percent so we're okay, but a centre really needs to be relatively full to make good money," he said. Grgicevich said many centres were not at 70 percent occupancy and those in areas where parents could not afford the fees were struggling. "I know a lot of South Auckland centres really do struggle because you've got to charge a minimum of $300 for a baby and $200 for an over-three and a lot of parents can't even afford that," he said. He said he recently sold a centre because there were too many other centres in the area. Education Ministry figures showed children's participation in early learning increased last year after slumping in 2021-22. Nearly 81 percent of four-year-olds were attending for 10 hours or more a week last year, up from 74 percent in 2023 but still shy of the pre-Covid high of 84 percent. That translated into a percentage-point increase in occupancy to about 78 percent across the education and care sector but in Auckland it was 76 percent. Meanwhile, Grgicevich said he was not expecting any relief from action stemming from last year's review of ECE regulations. "That regulatory stuff, I personally think is a waste of time. We're inherently safe in what we do. There has to be some checks in place and they weren't costing us anything. My annual regulatory budget was low. If I spent two or three thousand dollars a year, that would be it," he said. Kidsfirst Kindergartens is a non-profit organisation with about 64 kindergartens in Canterbury, the West Coast and Central Otago. Its chief executive Sherryll Wilson said kindergarten teachers were state sector employees, so their pay parity with school teachers was negotiated directly with the government, unlike other early childhood teachers. Even so, she said she was worried by the government's changes to pay parity and to early childhood regulations. "It feels like for early childhood we are having the same challenges as what we've had years ago. The pay equity, pay parity, teacher supply. It feels like we never get to the stage where we can future-proof," she said. "It feels like we're just going back in time and having the same arguments all over again." Wilson said enrolments were good across the organisation's kindergartens but there were more centres competing for enrolments. "In the past we might have had three or four really strong ECE services, not all kindergartens, but now we've got 10 services in the same area all trying to capture the same children," she said. Wilson said one of the biggest challenges for the organisation was uncertainty about government funding from year to year was challenging. "For a non-profit organisation like Kidsfirst, our greatest source of revenue is government funding, we're heavily reliant on it and we suffer from the whims of whoever is in power at any given time in terms of the funding we receive," she said. Wilson said the supply of qualified teachers was a problem, especially in the regions, and there was a sense of exhaustion and frustration in the sector.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Seymour pay changes add more anxiety for ECE sector
Photo: 123rf Early childhood teachers and managers say centres are struggling with teacher shortages, low enrolments and inadequate government funding. Some are alarmed by surprise changes to pay parity - the system for giving centres higher subsidies if they pay qualified teachers the same as kindergarten and school teachers. At Aro Valley Preschool in central Wellington senior teacher Bridget Mickelson-Warmouth said the government's half-a-percent funding increase for next year's subsidies and recent changes to pay parity were making people nervous. "Funding is always a big key for community centres. Because we're not-for-profit, all the money that comes in goes back in to making sure that teachers are well-paid, that we're well-resourced, and that we can maintain low ratios and small groups," she said. "It's quite unnerving to find out what's going to happen within our funding space." Aro Valley Preschool senior teacher Bridget Mickelson-Warmouth says it's "unnerving" thinking about funding for the sector. Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen Mickelson-Warmouth said community-run centres were especially vulnerable to pay parity changes because they tended to hire experienced, qualified teachers who were paid at the top of the scale. She said last year's decision to cut relief teachers from the scheme had already had a negative effect. "We actually are finding it harder to get relievers as relief teachers either go into permanent work if they can find it or they can leave the sector altogether. We've had some fantastic relievers recently who are currently retraining in other areas and are going out of early childhood due to the inability to get work or the work that they can get is in places that they don't want to be," she said. Some early childhood centre owners have complained that pay parity was hard to afford because the government funding that supported it was inadequate. Despite that, the number of centres opting into the highest tier of the scheme - which obliged them to offer pay-parity rates to the most experienced staff - grew from about 1000 in 2023 to 1484 in March this year. Auckland early childhood centre owner Vince Grgicevich said pay parity was tricky when it was introduced several years ago, but his biggest challenges were competition and parents keeping children home when they worked from home on Mondays and Fridays. Grgicevich said centres tended to have fewer children attending on Mondays and Fridays, which saved parents money but made early childhood centre staffing difficult. "Numbers have improved a little bit but they are still not back up to where we used to sit at 90-95 percent across the board. Our centres sit anywhere between 70 and 80 percent so we're okay, but a centre really needs to be relatively full to make good money," he said. Grgicevich said many centres were not at 70 percent occupancy and those in areas where parents could not afford the fees were struggling. "I know a lot of South Auckland centres really do struggle because you've got to charge a minimum of $300 for a baby and $200 for an over-three and a lot of parents can't even afford that," he said. He said he recently sold a centre because there were too many other centres in the area. Education Ministry figures showed children's participation in early learning increased last year after slumping in 2021-22. Nearly 81 percent of four-year-olds were attending for 10 hours or more a week last year, up from 74 percent in 2023 but still shy of the pre-Covid high of 84 percent. That translated into a percentage-point increase in occupancy to about 78 percent across the education and care sector but in Auckland it was 76 percent. Meanwhile, Grgicevich said he was not expecting any relief from action stemming from last year's review of ECE regulations. "That regulatory stuff, I personally think is a waste of time. We're inherently safe in what we do. There has to be some checks in place and they weren't costing us anything. My annual regulatory budget was low. If I spent two or three thousand dollars a year, that would be it," he said. Kidsfirst Kindergartens is a non-profit organisation with about 64 kindergartens in Canterbury, the West Coast and Central Otago. Its chief executive Sherryll Wilson said kindergarten teachers were state sector employees, so their pay parity with school teachers was negotiated directly with the government, unlike other early childhood teachers. Even so, she said she was worried by the government's changes to pay parity and to early childhood regulations. "It feels like for early childhood we are having the same challenges as what we've had years ago. The pay equity, pay parity, teacher supply. It feels like we never get to the stage where we can future-proof," she said. "It feels like we're just going back in time and having the same arguments all over again." Wilson said enrolments were good across the organisation's kindergartens but there were more centres competing for enrolments. "In the past we might have had three or four really strong ECE services, not all kindergartens, but now we've got 10 services in the same area all trying to capture the same children," she said. Wilson said one of the biggest challenges for the organisation was uncertainty about government funding from year to year was challenging. "For a non-profit organisation like Kidsfirst, our greatest source of revenue is government funding, we're heavily reliant on it and we suffer from the whims of whoever is in power at any given time in terms of the funding we receive," she said. Wilson said the supply of qualified teachers was a problem, especially in the regions, and there was a sense of exhaustion and frustration in the sector.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska schools need teachers. They're hiring them from the Philippines.
Serjoe Gutierrez plays violin with the Kodiak High School Orchestra during warm ups (Photo by Brian Venua/KMXT) Alaska schools are hiring teachers from the Philippines amid a massive national shortage. It's the latest wave of immigrants from Southeast Asia to come to the state. This is part one of a five part audio series, Mabuhay sa Alaska, by KMXT and breaks down how and why those teachers are here, as well as what it means for both Alaska, and the island nation. Serjoe Gutierrez stood above the Kodiak High School Orchestra, violin in hand, as students rifled through their sheet music for pieces like 'The Barber of Seville' and 'Canyon Sunset.' Gutierrez often plays with his students instead of conducting them. Gutierrez, who was born and raised in the Philippines, was in his fifth year of teaching there when he decided he wanted to try to work in another country. 'I think it's time for me to come out of my comfort zone, explore a lot of opportunities, since I'm still young,' he said. Alaska wasn't high on his list. Kodiak barely made it on his radar. 'Kodiak was the last school district I applied to because it was the last school district that pop(ped) out of my Google browser,' Gutierrez said. 'And I told myself, 'Well if not in Kodiak, maybe the United States is not for me.'' He's now in his third year of teaching here. Gutierrez's immigration story is one of hundreds already playing out in schools all over Alaska, from the Aleutians to the North Slope to Southeast, as dozens of school districts have hired from the Philippines amid a national shortage of certified teachers. School districts are cutting out the middleman Gutierrez has become well known in Kodiak. Parents chat with him at student concerts, and he hosts a Filipino music show on KMXT. He plays piano at a local church, as well as violin for charity auctions and in the community's theater. He has even joined the Kodiak Island Borough School district's efforts to recruit more teachers from his home country. In January, Gutierrez helped lead a group of Alaska school administrators on a recruiting trip to the Philippines. Until recently, school districts have relied on third-party agencies to recruit teachers. But with demand up and opportunities to cut out middlemen, Kodiak's district has led the way to recruit directly from the Philippines. Some parents and Kodiak community members have criticized the practice for being too expensive. Kodiak Island Borough School District spent about $28,000 to send a team of 4 people this year, including Gutierrez. Teams like that screen hundreds of candidates in a single trip. Working with lawyers and visa fees cost an additional $7,000 per teacher hired. Districts also can pay another $2,400 if they want to work with immigration lawyers to extend visas. Hiring through an agency can cost a district about $27,000 per teacher. And districts aren't the only ones that pay when going through agencies. When Gutierrez started looking for work abroad three years ago, he had to pay $50 just to learn how to apply for jobs in other countries. Many teachers in the Philippines make only about $400 per month. He's heard of some agencies charging teachers thousands of dollars once they've been placed in the U.S. 'The best of the best' It took the group of administrators about two days to travel from Anchorage to the Philippines for the most recent recruitment trip. On the first day of recruiting, in a hotel conference space near Manila, candidates wore Western dresses and suits – even tuxedos. Others wore traditional Filipino formal wear, like embroidered shirts called barong tagalogs and distinctly shouldered filipinianas. The room was full of candidates with graduate and postgraduate degrees. Some of the administrators said that on recruiting trips within the U.S., candidates were often fresh from their undergraduate colleges. The Bering Strait School District has hired up to 60 teachers in a single year – about a third of its total teaching staff. The district has hired international teachers through an agency before, but this was its first time sending someone to recruit directly. Tera Cunningham leads the district's human resources. She'd never seen so many people vying for teaching jobs in Alaska. 'It's exciting to see so many well-trained, well-prepared people who genuinely just want to help kids,' she said. The candidates had only a few minutes to introduce themselves and impress the administrators. Out of the first group of 120 candidates, less than a third had callbacks that day. 'It is intense to do it this way, and we know we'll get the best of the best here,' Cunningham said. She said meeting candidates in person helps her visualize them in action. 'And so I'm excited to see who that looks like, what that looks like when they make it through and they're finally at our sites,' she said. But not every school district can afford to visit the Philippines. That's part of why Jennifer Schmidt with the Alaska Council of School Administrators joined the group. She said that the trip makes sense for districts with many openings, but some have only one or two. The council, which handles the Alaska teacher and personnel system, received grant money from the U.S. Department of Education to improve the state's retention and recruitment. Kodiak's school district has led the recruiting trips so far, but Schmidt said the eventual goal is for her to take the lead. She said ideally, schools wouldn't need to recruit from abroad, but there just aren't enough American and Alaska-grown candidates. 'It's going to take a lot of turnaround and a lot of change in the state of Alaska for us to have enough teachers in Alaska and in the U.S. that are going to want to come and teach there,' she said. This story was originally published by KMXT, as part one of a five part audio series, Mabuhay sa Alaska.
News24
29-05-2025
- General
- News24
Teachers matter – and we need more of them
Almost everyone can remember a teacher who made a lasting difference in their life. Great teachers don't just deliver educational content – they open up opportunities, ignite curiosity, and offer encouragement that can shape a child's future. But South Africa simply doesn't have enough of them. Each year, the country produces around 15 000 new teachers – far short of the 25 000 needed. With almost half the current teaching workforce nearing retirement age, and many others taking up better-paying posts overseas, there's a growing urgency to attract, train and retain more skilled teachers locally. Recognising this, STADIO 's School of Education is working to bridge the gap between the lecture room and the classroom. Its teacher training programmes are designed not only to attract aspiring educators, but to thoroughly prepare them for the complex and often challenging environments they'll work in. Equipping teachers for the workplace Teaching has always been more than a job – it's a profession that demands resilience, empathy, adaptability, and deep commitment. Today's educators face an increasingly demanding landscape: from managing large classes and limited resources to supporting learners' emotional and psychological needs, often with little external support. That's why practical, real-world preparation is critical. Through its School of Education, STADIO equips future teachers with the tools they need to succeed. Its Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) offers a wide range of subject specialisations across the Senior Phase and Further Education and Training (FET) band, ensuring graduates are ready to teach at multiple levels. The programme is designed for flexibility, allowing students to complete it in one, 1,5 or two years – ideal for those balancing work, family or other commitments. Delivered via distance learning, the PGCE includes essential work-integrated learning elements, such as lesson planning, classroom management, and innovative teaching strategies. Students graduate with not only theoretical knowledge but also practical, in-classroom skills that prepare them to meet the realities of South Africa's education system head-on. Affordability is another key focus. By keeping fees accessible without compromising on quality, STADIO is making it possible for more South Africans to pursue their passion for teaching. This in turn will help address the country's growing demand for dedicated, skilled educators. Creating teachers of the future Although the educational landscape is rapidly evolving, with new tools and technologies available, one thing remains true: teachers matter. They change lives, shape futures, and are essential to the health of our society. By preparing and empowering the next generation of educators, STADIO is investing in a brighter, more equitable future for all. For more information, click here for the STADIO School of Education's website.
