Two Otago principals have welcomed the government’s short-term fix to a relief teacher shortage despite the teachers union’s concerns.
The government announced the Teaching Council would loosen eligibility criteria to allow previously registered teachers to relieve and teach in positions where specialist skills were required but were in short supply.
PPTA Te Wehengarua president Chris Abercrombie said the "ad hoc" response from Minister of Education Erica Stanford meant thousands of young people would not be taught by trained and qualified subject-specialist teachers.
But East Otago High School acting principal Keith Fleury said he would love to be able to use a teacher he knew as a reliever whose registration had recently lapsed.
This year there were instances where he only managed to avoid sending students home "by the skin of his teeth".
He would far rather have a relief teacher who had recently had their registration lapse than send his students home, Mr Fleury said.
"It would be quite useful to use those people in classrooms. They’re still experienced teachers and the registration is just a technical thing really.
"We don’t feel it’s a risk if the person in front of the class has been a trained, qualified and experienced teacher in the past.
"We’re not talking about just members of the public here."
"I think there has been too much talk and it’s time to get on with it and take some action.
"In the short term anything that fixes or alleviates the very real issues ... is important."
During winter, he was having to find relievers for relievers who were sick and the school’s systems were put under a lot of strain, Mr Hall said.
"We didn’t have to shorten any classes and we didn’t have to cut any programmes but it was tight."
The changes from the government would allow for previously registered teachers to receive limited authorities to teach more easily.
PPTA Otago regional chairman Kussi Hurtado-Stuart said the loosening of regulations from the government was a "short-sighted solution".
He was concerned the teachers with a limited authority to teach under the new regulations would not be held under the same code of ethics as other teachers.
Past teachers also had limited incentive to come back as relievers because they were still being underpaid, Mr Hurtado-Stuart said.
He felt the government was setting the education sector up to fail rather than fixing the teacher shortage issue.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said the short-term measures made were what teachers and principals had asked for.
The focus was on encouraging teachers who were not teaching at present to return as relievers.
At the moment, it was too expensive and difficult for past teachers who wanted to return as relievers to do so.
In order to increase the overall teacher workforce the government had invested $53 million to attract, train and retain teachers, she said.
