The number of sick days taken up by primary and secondary school teachers have shot up more than 60 percent on pre-pandemic levels, according to figures from the Ministry of Education.
Primary school teachers took 145,315 sick days between January 12 and July 12, 2022, the Ministry of Education's leader of Operations and Integration, Sean Teddy, said.
Meanwhile, secondary school teachers took 119,903 sick days during the same period.
That’s compared to the 89,873 sick days taken by primary school teachers and 69,801 sick days used by secondary school teachers between January 2 and July 2, 2019.
“Like the rest of the community, school relievers have experienced higher than usual levels of sicknesses and absence, which has made accessing relievers to backfill permanent staff absences in schools more difficult,” Teddy said.
“We encourage schools to reach out to their local Te Mahau office if they are facing staffing challenges, as there are some staffing solutions which can provide schools with in-person support, apart from utilising relievers.”
Some schools have been forced to close as relief teachers help fill full-time positions elsewhere.
“A number of folk who would be relief teachers have in fact been employed long-term at schools so they're not available anymore,” Deidre Shea, the principal at Auckland’s Onehunga High School, said.
It comes amid concerns around an already acute staffing shortage nationwide.
Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Wendy Kofoed last month told Breakfast it is common practice for classes to be split across different teachers on a weekly and sometimes daily basis in order to cope.
"We're currently have very significant issues in schools getting qualified educators and relievers to cope with the increasing need in our Auckland schools and that's putting pressure on the staff that we do have," Kofoed said.
"Some schools have had to move back to online learning, or hybrid learning or keeping year groups at home and that's also compounded by the fact we can't get those sort of long-term relievers."
READ MORE: Fears of worsening secondary teacher shortage in 2023
Teddy said the ministry is working alongside the Teaching Council to "speed up the processing time for new teacher registrations and new Limited Authority to Teach (LAT) applications, to make sure new teachers can enter the classroom more quickly".
He said the LAT applications are "usually being processed with fast turnaround times".
Teddy added that feedback from schools and kura have indicated the support provided to combat staffing shortages "has been appreciated".
"We are continuing to support schools in other ways, including financial support for schools and kura recruiting relievers."
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