Francesca Rudkin: Let's respect our teachers

According to an article in the NZ Herald this morning, fewer people want to be teachers.   

Teacher education is still a popular field of study, but both Canterbury and Otago Universities have seen a decline in teaching student enrolments over the past four years. 

Provisional data shows Canterbury has 964 students enrolled in a course in 2025, down from 1281 four years ago. 

Otago has followed a similar trend, with student numbers dropping from 620 to 495 in the same period. 

National Polytech, Te Pukenga, has seen the lowest number of first year teaching students since it formed in 2020. 

It’s not the best news when we are facing a teacher shortage is it? PPTA President Chris Abercrombie said the downward trend is extremely worrying. 

I’m not surprised by this trajectory.  

All we seem to hear about are issues around pay, conditions, and the challenge of changes to the curriculum.  

And then there are the parents who don’t have the time to support their children in their education but complain about teachers when their children don’t reach their expectations.  

I can understand pay and conditions being a red flag for someone heading into teaching, but teachers have worked hard advocating for themselves when it comes to pay, and the government has accepted conditions need to improve.  

But it’s in all our best interests that we attract good people, passionate about education, to the profession, and while we may not be able to do much about the pay and conditions outside a general election, we can do something to push back on the shift in attitude towards teachers which has crept in over recent years, preventing some from considering the idea of being a teacher.  

Chris Abercrombie said, “One of the things we often hear is the lack of respect from the community, from politicians, and people are like, well, why do I want to go into a profession that has that.” 

As in any industry, there are great teachers, good teachers, and some who may be a bit useless.  

But we need to be championing our teachers.  

Teachers play a massive, formulative role in our children’s lives.  

Some even change a young person’s life, or what our kids believe is possible.  

Just over 3 years ago, a young lady rather close to me started high school, had a bit of a hiccup, and was at school for about half of years 9 and 10.  

In year 11 she started a new school, and this year she aims to wrap up school and complete year 13 a year early, before heading to university to do a science degree. 

There isn’t a person who knows what she’s been through who isn’t stunned by this turn around. 

A lot of it is down to this remarkable young lady – she has worked hard to get back on track and loves to study - but it’s also thanks to a series of extraordinary teachers that she is where she is today. 

So, if we want the best outcome for our children and their future, we can start by showing some respect, and champion all the good teachers out there. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
According to an article in the New Zealand Herald this morning,
fewer people want to be teachers. Teacher education is still
a really popular field of study, but both Canterbury and
O Tiger Universities have seen a decline in teaching student
enrollments over the past four years. So initial data shows
that Canterbury has nine hundred and sixty four students enrolled
in a course in twenty twenty five, down from one thousand,

(00:21):
two hundred and eighty one four years ago. It Tigo
has followed a similar trend, with student numbers dropping from
six hundred and twenty to four hundred and ninety five
in the same period. A national Politech has seen the
lowest number of first year teaching students since it formed
in twenty twenty. So it is not the best news
when we're facing a teacher shortage, is it. PPTA president

(00:42):
Chris Abercrombie said the downward trend is extremely worrying, but
I'm not surprised by this. All we seem to hear
about our issues around pay conditions and the challenges challenge
of changes to the curriculum, and then there are the
parents who don't have the time to support their children
in their education, but complain about teachers and their children
don't reach their expectations. Look, I can understand paying conditions

(01:04):
being a red flag for someone heading into teaching, but
teachers have worked hard advocating for themselves when it comes
to pay and the government has accepted conditions need to improve.
But it's in all our best interests that we attract
good people passionate about education to the profession. And while
we may not be able to do much about the
paying conditions outside a general election, we can do something

(01:26):
to push back on the shift and attitude towards teachers
which has crept up in recent years, preventing some from
considering the idea of becoming a teacher. Chris Abercronbie said
that one of the things they often hear is the
lack of respect from the community from politicians, and people
are like, well, why do I want to go into
a profession that has that. As in any industry, there

(01:46):
are great teachers, good and some who may be a
bit useless, But we need to be championing our teachers.
Teachers play a massive formulative role in our children's lives.
Some even change a young person's life or what kids
believe is possible. Just over three years ago, a young
lady rather close to me started high school, had a
bit of a hiccup, and was at school for about

(02:09):
half of years nine and ten. In year eleven she
started a new school, and this year she aims to
wrap up school and complete year thirteen a year early,
before heading to university to do a science degree. There
isn't a person who knows what she's been through who
isn't stunned by this turnaround. A lot of it is
down to this remarkable young lady. She's worked hard to

(02:29):
get back on track and look, she loves loves to study.
But it's also thanks to a series of extraordinary teachers
who also just happen to be extraordinary humans that she
is where she is today. So if we want the
best outcome for our children and their future, maybe we

(02:50):
should all just stop waning about teachers. Maybe we should
start by showing some respect for more family edition with
Ryan's Bridge. Listen live to news talks it be from
five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.