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Educators warn an ageing teacher workforce and low student numbers are creating a workforce crisis for schools and early childhood centres.
Delegates to a summit organised by teacher union the Educational Institute on Monday told RNZ too few people were training to be teachers and working conditions were a significant problem.
Earlier this year the government provided $53 million over four years to boost teacher education and recruitment including funding for school-based teacher education courses for primary, intermediate and secondary school teachers, and $20,000 payments for school-based trainees.
Recently-qualified secondary maths teacher Joseph Durkin-Gorman said cost was one of many barriers that stopped young people from enrolling in teacher education programmes.
"The cost is quite significant for people to train and also when there are other options and pathways open to them where they can be earning a lot more and also have better working conditions," he said.
Durkin-Gorman said he was inspired to become a teacher by his love of the subject and by his own school teachers.
"A lot of my teachers, both in primary and secondary, they really made me see the value in what teaching and what education really does for us and for society," he said.
But too few people were making that choice.
Alison Kearney from the Council of Deans of Education said the number of people enrolling in initial teacher education (ITE) had been falling and at the same time more teachers were considering quitting.
"Fifty-eight percent of current teachers are thinking about leaving the teaching profession in the next five years. Also our ITE numbers show us that applicants looking to come into initial teacher education have been falling by 17 percent year on year, so it is a big problem and up until now we've really only had piecemeal solutions thrown at it," she said.
Kearney said three factors were a big part of the problem world-wide.
"One is the lack of value that's placed on the teaching profession now in society. It's not a highly-esteemed and valued role like it used to be. The other is remuneration. If you compare the teachers' starting salary after a three or sometimes four-year degree with the starting salary of other professions with that level and requirement of training you'll find that remuneration is not equitable," she said.
"The third thing is teaching working conditions. The pressures on teachers have been growing year-on-year. More and more has been asked of teachers, less and less has been taken from them."
'This country is going to be in serious trouble'
Educational Institute president Mark Potter said the situation was serious.
"It's getting harder and harder for schools and centres to find teachers and we've got a cliff approaching, which is the ageing population of teachers," he said.
"So with the drop off in people entering the profession, this country is going to be in serious trouble... It's our own climate change in education."
Potter said the union arranged the summit to find agreement on possible solutions.
"The answer to teacher supply is going to be a long-term plan and it means everyone has to buy into it including politicians, including agencies, including professional bodies. If we don't all agree we're just going to keep pulling apart and tripping up good ideas and short-termism and we can't afford that," he said.
Earlier this year the government provided $53 million over four years to boost teacher education and recruitment including more money for school-based teacher education programmes and $20,000 payments for school based trainees.
Delegates told RNZ the cost of training was a disincentive for some students.
But they said there was more to it.
Onslow College deputy principal and member of Te Akatea, the Māori principals association, Connor Baird, said the current shortage was a long time in the making and workloads and large class sizes were a major factor.
"What a teacher has to do in 2024 is significantly different than what a teacher had to 1980, but a large portion of our population doesn't understand the change and nor have the conditions in teaching changed," he said.
"Just the amount of time that is required for our teachers in front of classroom is unreasonable. The 20 hours a week plus all the planning time, plus all the meetings is what causes teacher burnout."
Baird said many new teachers dropped out soon after they took on a full teaching workload because it was unreasonable and unsustainable.
He said the lack of Māori teachers and te reo Māori teachers was "quite shocking".
"It's just leaving us without any answers essentially," he said.
However, Baird said despite the problems New Zealand still had a high-quality school system.
"We still have an amazing system that's pumping out incredibly bright and talented young people as we can see in the workforce of Aotearoa but it's just how do we get better I think is the question and how do we make the profession one that people value," he said.