Students lose over 100 teaching hours in 12 months

Planning just a day ahead - let alone a week or term - has become harder than ever for school principals.

Kate Gainsford has led Aotea College for 10 years, and said this is the toughest she has seen it.

"Without a doubt it's the worst range of factors that are putting pressures on the schools at the moment."

Three factors in particular have combined to form a perfect storm for educators.

Teacher shortages - either vacancies or staff sickness - ongoing industrial action and a dwindling supply of relief teachers.

Gainsford said "there's no safe, secure strong pool of relievers" and that staffing schools in the first place has become difficult, and expensive when looking internationally.

She said she's having to lock in staff months earlier than ever before for the following year.

"All of these factors, all of these pressures fall unevenly. Families (may) think 'well that school down the road has done this, and that school hasn't' but that's because it falls unevenly."

One school that's been affected more than most is Upper Hutt College.

Since June 2022, they've had to run reduced timetables for a total 23 weeks. That equates to more than 100 hours in the classroom.

Principal Judith Taylor said parents and students are already concerned about time out of the classroom, and confirmed that they have started term two back on the full timetable, to mitigate the effects of upcoming industrial action.

Ministry of Education data showed that missing just half a day of school can lead to lower levels of achievement, and that losing one day a month can be enough for a student to earn fewer NCEA credits than their peers.

Prime Minister and former education minister Chris Hipkins said Covid-19 has brought major disruption to schools over the last three years, and that it's currently a "really challenging environment for schools".

"I know that the teaching community in particular will be looking ahead to the winter with a degree of trepidation."

He said the government is doing "all we can to support schools" through these times, and have recruited more teachers from home and abroad to try and ease the pressure.

National's education spokesperson Erica Stanford doesn't think the current situation is good enough.

"This was the year that we were supposed to get our kids back in class, and back learning. But here we are in a position where we've got again, lost learning, and this was entirely preventable if the government had got on top of staff shortages in secondary schools, but they've done nothing for six years."

Acting Minister of Education Kelvin Davis said ongoing industrial action has had a greater impact on Upper Hutt College's situation than most.

He is pleased that facilitated bargaining between the Ministry and the PPTA has begun.

"The last few years have been extremely disruptive for our students, and we should all be working to avoid further disruption to their learning."

Gainsford, who chairs the Secondary Principal Council on the PPTA, said the ongoing industrial action could make term two even tougher.

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"If the industrial action continues, then it may well get to that stage (of more reduced timetables)."

"That's always the last resort."