New Zealand education crisis: More concerns as number of students studying teaching drops
- Canterbury and OtagoUniversities have seen a decrease in teaching student enrolments over the last four years.
- Education Minister Erica Stanford said she’s going to make teaching more attractive.
- The Teaching Council is working with sector leaders to address workforce challenges.
There are moves under way to make teaching more attractive, as interest in training in the profession continues to decline.
Ministry of Education data show the total number of people studying at least one education course dropped from 34,165 in 2015 to 27,510 in 2024.
The majority are enrolled at a university, while over 7,000 people study at private training establishments.
Teacher education remains the most popular field of study, however, the number of people studying it decreased from 21,205 to 18,490 from 2015 to 2024.
Curriculum and education study numbers also dropped from 14,580 to 10,170 in the same period.
Both Canterbury and Otago Universities experienced a peak in teaching enrolments in 2021, but are seeing lower numbers this year.
Provisional data show Canterbury has 964 students enrolled in a course in 2025, a significant decrease from 1281 four years ago.
Otago has followed a similar trend, with student numbers dropping from 620 to 495 in the same period.
National polytech Te Pūkenga has seen the lowest number (986) of first-year teaching students since it formed in 2020.
Post Primary Teachers’ Association/Te Wehengarua (PPTA) president Chris Abercrombie said the downward trend is extremely worrying.
“We know there’s a worsening shortage of secondary teachers here in New Zealand and it’s really concerning to see those numbers decreasing," Abercrombie said.
The Ministry of Education’s annual Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Projection has warned that schools could be short by 1250 teachers this year due to immigration-driven roll growth and increased classroom release time for teachers.
The shortfall comes after a forecasting error last year, when the ministry incorrectly predicted an oversupply of teachers for 2025.
Education Minister Erica Stanford has since added offshore primary school teachers to the straight-to-residence pathway in response to an unexpected staff shortage.
It comes at a time when the total school roll is increasing and is projected to peak at 848,368 students in 2026.
Stanford last week told the National Secondary Education Leadership Summit she’s going to make teaching more attractive.
“One of the things that I know has been a real pain point is learning support,” she said.
“And often I hear teachers and leaders say, look, minister, it’s not the pay, it’s the conditions and it’s the fact that we’re under so much pressure because of learning support.”
But Abercrombie said pay plays a big part in getting more people into the career.
“We know that pay and conditions have been eroded over that time period. We’ve been working really hard with successive Governments to try and solve that – but haven’t been able to do that.”
He said there’s also been a cultural shift in the attitude towards teachers.
“One of the things we often hear is the lack of respect from the ... community, from politicians, and people are like, well, why do I want to go into a profession that has that?”
The Teaching Council said it’s committed to addressing current and future workforce challenges.
“We are working closely with the Ministry of Education, other education agencies, teacher unions and key stakeholders on a range of initiatives designed to address both current workforce challenges, and also on longer-term initiatives designed to lift the status of the teaching profession.
“Some of the short-term initiatives include temporary policy changes to registration policies to make it easier for ex-teachers to return to teaching, either as fulltime teachers or as relievers, and attracting more qualified, skilled and experienced overseas trained teachers to come to New Zealand.”
Abercrombie said pay conditions and the workloads of new teachers need to be prioritised first.
“Secondary teaching is an amazing career. It’s one I’ve been doing almost 20 years, it’s an amazing job,” he said.
“It’s a job I’ll do forever, and it’s so rewarding in many ways and we just need it to be a job that people want to do.”
Jaime Cunningham is a Christchurch-based reporter with a focus on education, social issues and general news. She joined Newstalk ZB in 2023 after working as a sports reporter at the Christchurch Star.
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