Media release: Why is NZ shedding talented teachers?
Wellington (7 October 2013): While national standards, charter schools, and class sizes have dominated the education debate, research by The New Zealand Initiative shows teacher quality is the most important in-school factor influencing student achievement.
But as the World Class Education? Why New Zealand Must Strengthen its Teaching Profession report shows, many educators are demoralised by the structures in which they work, the low social status of the job, and the lack of talent recognition within the system.
“New Zealand has a very good education system, but by failing to recognise the value teachers bring, we’ve ended up with a very lopsided profile of student performance,” said Dr Oliver Hartwich, executive director of the Initiative.
“On one hand we have very high performing students who rank among the best in the world. But on the other, there are pockets of students who are being left behind not only in the core areas of reading, science and maths, but in every other measure as well.”
In brief, the research found:
- NZ has one of the largest gaps in the world between high- and low-performing students, with Māori and Pasifika students consistently less successful than Pakeha and Asian students
- the quality of teacher education is variable – only 57% of schools are satisfied with the quality of teacher graduates
- teacher morale in secondary schools slipped from 70% in 2009 to 57% in 2012.
Dr Hartwich said the need to attract quality graduates into the profession is increasingly pressing as the aging teaching workforce nears retirement age.
“We need to give the profession the recognition it deserves if we want to attract the best and brightest graduates and hold onto our position at the top of the education rankings,” he said.
World Class Education? Why New Zealand Must Strengthen its Teaching Profession is written by the former headmaster of Auckland Grammar School John Morris and The New Zealand Initiative research fellow Rose Patterson.
It will be followed later this year by a report on how the top education systems in the world are tackling similar challenges.
The third report, expected in early 2014, will draw on these international policies to explore how New Zealand’s teaching profession can be strengthened.
The event will be launched at a fully booked event in Auckland, but a limited number of spaces are available for media.