Schools throughout Otago are advertising 32 vacant teaching positions as the Ministry of Education reports a five-year high in teacher resignations.
Nationally, 1200 teaching positions were being advertised yesterday and the ministry's Teacher Loss Report revealed more than 4000 teachers had left the profession in the year to May.
Wakatipu High School, in Queenstown, was seeking nine teachers to fill vacancies within the school, principal Lyn Cooper said yesterday.
There were various reasons for the vacancies, she said, including teachers travelling overseas, training opportunities and growth in the area.
She believed if teachers returned, with added value from their experiences, it was for the better.
"I'm quite happy that we lose some [staff] and we are not finding it difficult to replace them."
Four positions were also advertised at St Hildas Collegiate School, in Dunedin, for a range of reasons, principal Melissa Bell said.
These included consolidation of part-time staff into full-time roles as well as teachers leaving the area or going on parental leave.
While she said there had been "increasing concerns about people leaving", she believed it was not an issue for her school.
She felt young people wanting to travel overseas was an issue for all professions, including teaching, but pointed out the role of a teacher could be challenging and tasks expected of them had increased over the years, leaving some disillusioned with the job.
Dunedin's Andersons Bay School principal David McWhinnie agreed. He believed the high departure rate was because of increased workloads and increased expectations from parents, the community and "policy-makers".
He was seeking teachers to fill three vacant positions which had come about because one teacher had resigned and two were going on extended leave.
"We are just going through a transition," he said, and was not concerned about finding replacements.
South Otago High School, in Balclutha, had three vacancies brought about by overseas travel, maternity leave and study leave, principal Nick Simpson said.
"For a rural school, that's often the way it is."
He expressed his concern about the high teacher attrition rate indicated in the ministry's report and said the country was losing teachers faster than it was replacing them.
"If we know the loss rate is high, we need to train enough teachers to replace them."
He was also aware of many young people wanting to travel abroad.
"We can't stop them from going - they are highly sought after overseas because of their high level of training."
The report found 4305 teachers left the profession in the year to May, a five-year high at a loss rate of 10.8%, which equated to 2258 primary teachers and 1719 secondary teachers.
The report indicated the main reasons behind the loss of younger teachers, aged 25 to 39, were overseas travel and maternity leave, while the loss of teachers aged 65 to 79 was due to retirement.
