Teacher shortage feared

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 9

Teacher shortage feared

PA Wellington The Wellington Education Board is concerned that it may not be able to find the extra teachers required to fill new posts announced last week-end by the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall.

At its meeting yesterday, the Education Boards’ Association welcomed the announcement that 200 new positions would be created before the end of the year,

but several boards expressed concern about filling them. The association’s president, Mr Clive Hesketh, said that the boards believed that most of the new posts would be filled by teachers now in short-term and longterm relieving positions. Relieving positions would need to be filled as a result. The exact size of the community pool of qualified teachers was not known, he

said. Surveys would need to be done to establish numbers.

The Wellington and South-land-Otago boards had problems filling some relieving jobs and so they were concerned about future recruitment problems, Mr Hesketh said. The association will end its two-day meeting today. The chairmen and general managers of New Zealand’s 10 education boards attend the quarterly meeting.