10 April 2025

Develop and implement a Strategic Teacher Workforce Plan

We need a Strategic Teacher Workforce Plan to attract, retain, and grow a professional, culturally responsive ECE teaching workforce within Aotearoa New Zealand, while prioritising ongoing investment in initial teacher education across all education sectors.

Aotearoa is experiencing significant teacher shortages that spans all sectors – early childhood education (ECE), primary, and secondary. We urgently need a Strategic Teacher Workforce Plan to ensure a sustainable pipeline of qualified kaiako to deliver quality ECE and school education now and into the future to ensure we never experience levels of shortages as we are currently.

The case for a workforce strategy

“The right of every child to a quality public education is dependent on a high-quality teaching workforce. The Education Sector Groups agreed there is a chronic and critical shortage of teachers across the early childhood, primary and secondary sectors and there is an immediate need to find a systemic solution to prevent further attrition.”

- Joint statement following Teacher Supply Summit 2024.

Some ECE kaiako face lower pay, challenging working conditions, limited career pathways, and poor professional status. Teaching is an essential and an increasingly complex role, yet kaiako remain undervalued. The shortage of qualified ECE kaiako in Aotearoa is complex and long-standing problem that requires a range of coordinated, multifaceted solutions. It isn’t as simple as enrolling more tauira into ITE or easing immigration settings for overseas teachers. We must take a systemic, strategic approach to enact real change, address the root causes, and build a strong and sustainable teaching profession that deserves the recognition of a profession. These are our people educating our youngest tamariki and young people who will be in future workforces driving the economy.

Here we highlight the challenges in the ECE sector which is only one part of the teaching workforce.

Factors contributing to our ECE kaiako shortage

Pay and Conditions: ECE kaiako are not paid equitably compared to their colleagues in the school sectors- a teacher is a teacher is a teacher no matter what part of the education sector they work in. Inadequate pay, insufficient non-contact time, and high workloads are pushing kaiako out of the profession.

Professional status: ECE teaching is often perceived as low-status work. Without public recognition and respect for the profession, we will struggle to attract and recruit new kaiako. Teacher qualification requirements exist to meet quality education goals for tamariki which is associated with knowledge of child development and the curriculum.

Career pathways: Many kaiako see limited opportunities for development, progression, or leadership in their careers.

Workforce supply: Aotearoa is not training enough ECE kaiako to meet current and future demand. Registered Early Childhood Teachers remain on Immigration New Zealand’s Green List. While these teachers enrich and diversify our teaching workforce, it is a reactive one-sided response to a long-standing problem. We must be proactive, growing and nurturing our own workforce for a sustainable ECE kaiako pipeline.

Teacher retention: Burnout, disillusionment, and lack of support are major drivers of attrition. These are often linked to pay and conditions.

Key components of a Strategic Teacher Workforce Plan

A Strategic Workforce Plan needs to be action orientated, setting clear targets, responsibilities and timelines. The following principles are not exhaustive, but must be considered:

Value kaiako

The Teaching Council’s 2023 Snapshot identified the top three concerns of kaiako as: stress and workload; financial compensation; and resourcing and support. This boils down to how we value kaiako.

• Raise the status and mana of the teaching profession. Publicly recognise the value of kaiako to make it an attractive career option and to retain existing kaiako.
• Remuneration must reflect the actual workload and nature of the profession. ECE kaiako have never been valued, remunerated, or asked what is needed to ensure a fairer system and to achieve pay parity.
• Despite meeting the same qualification, registration and certification standards, ECE kaiako are behind their compulsory schooling counterparts in pay, conditions, and perceived status. A teacher is a teacher is a teacher, no matter what sector they teach in.

Improve kaiako retention and career pathways

Retention remains a major challenge for the sector due to high workloads, inadequate pay, and limited opportunities for career progression. A strategic approach to retention should include:

• Fair and competitive remuneration to achieve pay parity across ECE and school. At a minimum, ECE pay should be comparable with primary teachers.
• Address resourcing issues to improve working conditions, including manageable teacher: child ratios and sufficient non-contact time.
• Continue to strengthen mentoring and induction programmes to support kaiako entering the profession.
• Creating clear career pathways, including leadership development opportunities, professional development opportunities, and succession planning.

Strengthen and support initial teacher education (ITE)

• Government must continue to prioritise investment in ECE and school ITE to grow a strong domestic workforce. This is essential to ensuring the future stability and quality of the teaching profession.

• Consider paid practicum for tauira in ITE to support equitable access and retention of diverse tauira.

Utilise data to inform strategy and solutions

• Collect and utilise data to forecast workforce needs, and to inform policy initiatives and tertiary investment in ITE.

• Establish a centralised system for ECE workforce data and forecasting. The Ministry of Education track primary and secondary teacher demand and supply through the Teacher Demand & Supply Planning Projection. There is currently no such data or analysis available for ECE, other than some data through teacher registration and some ECE services reporting.

Co-design and collaboration

• The sector has the incentive, commitment, and expertise to drive change. They understand the challenges and know needs to change. Involving the relevant government agencies, unions, ITE providers, sector leaders, and ECE kaiako will help develop and implement a Plan that is credible and impactful.

• Kaiako shortages extend beyond ECE, so it makes sense to align workforce planning with the primary, and secondary sectors to create a seamless education pipeline.

Sustainable funding commitment

• View education – both ECE and ITE - as an investment rather than an expense.

• Avoid short-term political initiatives that prioritise short-term cost-savings at the expense of workforce quality, development, or sustainability.

• Incentivise workforce retention in under-served communities, particularly rural or low socio-economic areas.

Long-term solutions require bipartisan agreement

ECE continues to suffer from inconsistent policies, quick-fixes, and inadequate investment. Frequent policy shifts driven by changing governments have created instability in the sector and have undermined efforts to build a strong, well-supported and sustainable workforce.

Decision-makers must take a long-term view of the education sector and not use as a political “football”. We have seen the unintended consequences of successive governments making piecemeal and ill-informed decisions without engagement or consultation. For instance, no investment into ECE at all, to the removal of Pay Parity for ECE relief teachers, all of which undermine the quality, mana and professional status of teachers and will drive down pay and conditions. We all want a coherent, high-functioning, sustainable ECE sector that focuses on teaching our tamariki so they can be successful. Without a strategic approach, policy changes made in isolation risk undermining progress in our tamariki’s education every day.

Sustainable and impactful solutions need bipartisan commitment, supported by sustained investment in ITE. A bipartisan workforce strategy would:

• signal a commitment to quality ECE and ITE.
• provide stability and confidence for the teaching profession.
• reduce volatility and enable sustained investment.
• improve workforce planning, reducing the cycle of shortages and surpluses.

By working together across party lines, we can develop a cohesive workforce strategy that serves the best interests of tamariki, whānau, and educators rather than being subject to political whims.

What role does Te Rito Maioha play?

For our ECE membership, we advocate for a national, strategic approach to workforce planning in ECE. Our tamariki deserve high-quality ECE delivered by a valued and qualified teaching workforce. We are committed to working with government, sector leaders, our members on a Strategic Teacher Workforce Plan that keeps our tamariki and kaiako at the centre – why and what for.

ECE is a complex sector, with many challenges and opportunities. Many of the factors that have contributed to the ECE kaiako shortage are covered in Te Rito Maioha’s Five-Point Plan. Our ongoing advocacy, teacher education mahi and future updates will continue to focus on these priorities.

As an ITE provider, Te Rito Maioha’s ECE and primary provision contributes to a medium and long-term solution of improving and sustaining kaiako supply.

Check out our first deep dive: Improve child-teacher ratios

Media Contact

Rob McCann - Lead Communications Advisor | Kaitohutohu Whakapā Matua
022 411 4560
rob.mccann@ecnz.ac.nz