For years now New Zealand has struggled with a teacher shortage and schools say they're struggling to fill gaps especially in subjects like maths and science.
But 1News spoke to a number of qualified teachers who say they have been rejected time and time again for these roles, and they believe it's due to their race.
"Once I thought of changing my name, let's say Mary, let's go for something else," says Sara* who’s been a teacher for 10 years in India. "I think that's one thing that strikes a 'oh that's an Indian, I don't want to hire an Indian', I felt that," she says.
"I spoke to a principal once and he said 'oh but if you're from India, why is your English so good?'," says Ana* who is an ex-chemistry teacher from India.
"That put me off a little bit because that was the first thing he said, you don't want to ask about my experience, you don't want to ask about what I teach," she says.
They said their identities have been put above their qualifications, despite being highly qualified and passionate teachers.
Sara comes from a family of teachers and never saw herself doing anything different. She has three masters and three bachelor's degrees.
Ana is a passionate chemistry graduate who loves the subject and seeing students' face light up when they too understand why things work the way they do in the science lab.
Both women have experience in teaching and have sacrificed up to two years in becoming fully licensed to teach in New Zealand, but they've been constantly rejected.
"I can count probably more than a hundred places I applied, there were like multiple places vacant across New Zealand and it was in the news that there was a lot of positions vacant and they were in shortage of teachers and experienced teachers," says Sara. She only heard back from half of those places.
"I can imagine if I was graduated from one of the universities here in New Zealand I would have gotten jobs straight away. I think because I was an overseas qualified teacher it bothered all the principals," says Sara.
She's been trying since 2019 to get a job when teaching was added to the skills shortage list. But even in 2011, New Zealand had the same problem and was in need of more teachers. Back then, Ana applied for three jobs.
"I don't remember them so well but one of them I went to a Catholic school and the lady said 'we like you and we want to offer it to you but because you don't have experience studying in New Zealand you won't be able to teach the students here'... and that was the last time I applied for anything, so it wasn't a great experience," says Ana.
President of the Secondary Principals' Association and Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault says that's just not a fair reason to dismiss an applicant.
"That's really concerning. Certainly in a school like mine where we have a hyper diverse community we need that in our education workforce. We need the diversity that people from various cultures and different backgrounds and experiences bring to our education workforce," he says.
Both these women say New Zealand has lost good teachers in this way due to racial bias.
"Many teachers felt discouraged and they opted out of the teaching profession completely because they could not stand with the disrespect and the differences and discrimination they were facing," says Sara.
"I've had three or four other women in my class who've just given up. One was a Pacific Islander, she did not pursue teaching. There was another person from Singapore, he was a migrant and he didn't pursue either. So there's a few of us that didn't get the chance to do what we passionately thought we could do," says Ana.
In speaking to numerous people about their struggles here, 1News learnt of the thousands some have spent to get a registration and certificate to fill a gap in the workforce, only to be offered relieving work at best.
Many have shared their frustration, hearing year after year that the country has a teacher shortage, but these teachers were never given a chance.
Sara hasn’t given up, but she's on the verge.
"I'm waiting for a reply from one of the schools I applied for. They were badly needing a teacher and I got to know they did not get any person to fill up that position for a couple of terms and I'm still waiting for the reply," she says.
"It's just disappointing. If you say you’ve got a shortage of teachers why don’t you give people a chance? Just say okay we'll try you for a year," says Ana.
As of this week the Ministry of Education told 1News there are 298 vacancies in secondary schools across the country.
Last year a border exemption allowed 300 qualified overseas teachers to enter the country - 265 applications have been received so far but only 58 have arrived into the country.
While the Ministry told 1News currently "the education workforce is in a strong position", Couillault says it’s "very challenging" to find teachers right now.
"What's concerning, perhaps, is that we've got good quality teachers sitting on the bench when we need them in the classrooms. I would hope that decisions have not been made based on the ethnicity or country of origin of a human that's just fairly unacceptable," Couillault said.
This is the first he's been made aware of this situation and vows to look into it further, agreeing there needs to be surveys and research done in the field to see how many genuine teachers NZ is missing out on.
"I'll be checking with colleagues of course over the next couple of weeks to see what they're hearing on the ground in various parts of the country," he says.
While within the ethnic community this has been common knowledge, this is the first time teachers have spoken up. They say they're fed up with hearing these reoccurring experiences alongside the continuing rhetoric that there's a teacher shortage.
"If you don't have people who are ready to accept people from other backgrounds, other cultures, other experiences into your field, there's never going to be a change there's always going to be a shortage," says Ana.
*Their names have been changed to protect their identity.
Have you experienced racial bias when trying to apply for a job in New Zealand? Share your experience with me at Vandhna.bhan@tvnz.co.nz and we can keep your identity anonymous.
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