Vaughan Couillault: Secondary Principals Association President on the dropping number of people signing up to be teachers

New Zealand doesn’t seem to be the only country with a looming shortage of teachers. 

The Teaching Council's highlighting data that shows the number of students graduating as teachers has dropped by more than a third. 

Half as many people are signing up to become teachers as there were in 2010. 

Secondary Principals Association President Vaughan Couillault told Mike Hosking he's been hearing similar reports overseas. 

He says he's been told in Australia and the United Kingdom, exactly the same thing's happening. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part of the reason we have a teacher shortage is basically,
no one wants to be a teacher. New stats this
morning a number of those signing up has halved since
twenty ten, and those going on to graduate has dropped
by a third. The Secondary Principals Association president Voron Coyez
back with it's born very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Up to money, Hey, how are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Indeed, those stats are a dire old thing, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Ah, they hurt, and they've been declining for some time,
and we've been sort of waving the flag at multiple
governments across multiple years to say that this is going
to come and bite us. And it's biting right.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I don't think it's money. I mean money helps. If
I offered you more money, you'd say, sure, why not.
But to take something on like teaching, you've got to
want to do it, and money can't be the sole reason,
which is all I ever hear. It's got to be
more complex than that, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, while we went to that period of full employment
just after COVID, you know that twenty two to twenty
three sort of seasons where people couldn't get employees, but
the borders hadn't quite opened and all that sort of stuff.
It was about money. People were leaving teaching because they
could literally get paid fifteen or twenty grand more at
an entry level job in the private sector, because of course,
the private sector was bound by that public sector. The

(01:12):
public sector was bound by that public sector pay restraints stuff,
and so we did have some money issues. And also
when you're going into teaching, when you're finishing a degree,
and my son's in exactly this situation. He's finishing his degree.
All of his mates are going, I think, I'm going
to go get a job so that gives them fifty
or sixty grand whatever they're going to be going to
go and do, whereas he's got to go do I

(01:33):
want to not have an income for another year and
pay additional student fees. So he puts himself quite a
bit behind everybody else and has.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Con But you've got to spend your life in front
of a bunch of scruts, And that's the problem.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Isn't it. Actually, Actually about ninety eight with the end
of them were pretty awesome, mate to me.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
No, I know, I knew you'd say, But that's the point,
isn't it. I mean, it doesn't matter what you've got
to love what you do and of the environment not
right in all that stuff. That's your real issue, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Pretty much if you go into teacher training and you
go on your first practicum, you know in the first
half a day whether this beg is for you, and
so it is a calling. But also it's a global situation.
So we're pretty harsh in New Zealand at looking at ourselves.
Are going, good grief, what are were doing wrong? Actually
there's a global teacher shortage. I was talking to my
offsider in Australia who does the same thing as me.

(02:25):
Over there, they've got exactly the same conditions that we've got.
I was talking to a guy in the UK recently.
The teacher shortage in the UK is extreme. So it's
a global phenomenon where people aren't going into teaching. It
is becoming more challenging with regard to the non curriculum
based demands that have been placed on the school sector

(02:46):
across the globe. But it's a fantastic job, so I've
got to get into it anyway.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Good sales patrick, well done, and I hope we can
turn it around. AI might help eventually for COYO, the
Secondary Principal Association President.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
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