Hundreds of teaching positions remain vacant as the new school year begins, despite the Government identifying more than 700 overseas recruits that can work here.
It's due to reluctance from some principals to take on educators trained overseas, citing concerns they won't be able to cater to New Zealand's unique cultural landscape.
The international recruitment campaign has so far resulted in over 8000 teachers being interested in teaching in New Zealand.
Of that, 1000 candidates have been screened and made available for interviews at schools.
A total of 225 international teachers have accepted roles in New Zealand so far, but a further 250 positions for Term 1 are yet to be filled.
And the total number of vacancies could be much higher, as not all schools register their need with recruitment groups.
Randstad, which has been contracted to work on the campaign, says it pro-actively contacts principals.
Randstad's New Zealand director Katherine Swan said "we also encourage principals to get in contact with us so they are very aware of what we have to offer".
Principal of Auckland's Balmoral School Malcolm Milner told 1 NEWS he was aware of the option to use the recruitment groups, but said overseas teachers are a last resort for him.
Principals' Federation president Whetu Cormick says it's down to concerns from schools that the internationally-trained educators could "compromise the level of experience in the teachers entering into their school".
"We know that New Zealand schools want to have New Zealand teachers in front of our young people because we a very unique culture," he said.
"When you understand someone, you can build a much stronger relationship and you know when you have stronger relationships, the learning is more effective," Mr Milner added.
"These teachers coming from overseas do need support and then that puts stresses on an already stressed system."
But Ministry of Education spokesperson Ellen MacGregor-Reid says that teachers who have been trained overseas "have always been part of our New Zealand schooling system and they bring great diversity to us".
"We have put in place a package of professional supports to help train overseas teachers in our curriculum, and in life in NZ, our culture, Te Reo Māori and we also provide release time for schools so that those overseas teachers can take part in that training," Ms MacGregor-Reid said.
For each teacher brought in from overseas, there is up to $3000 from taxpayers covering their recruitment, a relocation grant of up to $5000, and costs for training time outside of the classroom.
"That money, rather than being directed to overseas trained teachers, could go to actually paying our teachers more here in Aotearoa New Zealand," Mr Cormick said.
The Education Ministry is adamant it does have a range of initiatives focused on growing the domestic supply of teachers.
"For the short term, to make sure we had immediate supply for the demand, overseas teachers are a great way to make sure that there aren’t the vacancies in place," Ms MacGregor-Reid said.
Mr Cormick says even though some schools are reluctant to take on the foreign recruits, the 225 that have been taken on so far shows they are needed.
"I suspect we're going to have quite a few more coming in over the next year or two," he said.
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