Figures Highlight Teacher Crisis

act-new-zealand

Fri Jan 11 2002 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Figures Highlight Teacher Crisis

Friday, 11 January 2002, 9:16 am
Press Release: ACT New Zealand

Thursday 10 Jan 2002

The latest Education Gazette reinforces the fact that the teacher shortage has reached crisis proportions, ACT Education Spokesman MP Donna Awatere Huata said today.

"Unless every job advertised in the Education Gazette can immediately be filled by a well-qualified, experienced teacher, then up to four and a half thousand children will be affected. Every second school in New Zealand is missing a teacher.

"But advertisements in the Gazette are simply the tip of the iceberg. The Ministry of Education has deliberately under-estimated the number of teachers that every single school gets.

"Jobs that should be filled are actually going unadvertised. As a result, we see failure rates and expulsions bloom, and more kids studying by correspondence without a single teacher to help out.

"Schools have given up on the Ministry. They cannot do anything except ask parents for help. We are going to have untrained Mums and Dads doing the job that this Government refuses to do: educating our kids.

"The Minister of Education needs to wake up to reality. Deceit and spin might have gotten him into politics, but it's not going to help the kids get anywhere," Mrs Awatere Huata said.

ENDS

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