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The number of teachers working past the retirement age has increased by 70% in the last decade, new Ministry of Education figures show.

In 2024, there were 8072 teachers in state and state-integrated schools over the age of 65 - a significant jump from 4734 a decade earlier.

Last year’s figure makes up about 10% of the total workforce, while in 2014, the proportion was under 7%.

More than half of the older teachers in 2024 were in full-time jobs, with the remainder relief teachers.
833 were over 75 years old.

The country’s largest education union believes more teachers are working past retirement age, because they’re mission-driven.

“The teacher shortage has meant teachers often feel compelled to stay teaching to support their colleagues and the children they serve, even when they are over 65,″ NZEI President Ripeka Lessels said.

“Teaching has historically been female-dominated and not highly paid, so there is a gender gap in lifetime earnings and superannuation that means women can need to keep working.”

Lessels says the under-valuation of teaching has just been reinforced by the Government scrapping teachers’ pay equity claims.

68-year-old Kevin Greig has taught business studies and commerce for 20 years, because of his passion for the subjects.

“That keeps me doing the job, and it’s good enough to overcome all of the other detriments,” he said.

Greig knows a lot of other older teachers, who continue in the career for a variety of reasons.

“Some are working part-time or doing day relief, and often times it’s because they need the money, or they just need the contact with schools.”

“But I don’t know too many people who are in the same position as me,” he added.

The Wellington high school teacher believes there’s no substitute for the experience on offer from older teachers.
“If you’re teaching the same thing, you bring the same approach and so if it’s the same subject, [with] the experience of teaching it, you get better and better at it.”

However, Greig said New Zealand needs to retain as many young teachers as possible.

The Ministry of Education has warned a teacher shortfall of about 1200 is expected this year.

“I know that in reality, we should have more younger teachers coming through,” Greig said.

“The problem is that our younger teachers are getting qualified and disappearing offshore.”

He said there really is no more rewarding career.

“I don’t care what anyone says. I’ve been doing this 20 years, and so for for 35, 40 years before that, I was doing lots of other things, and I’ve never done anything better than this.”

Jaime Cunningham is a Christchurch-based reporter with a focus on education, social issues and general news. Cunningham joined ��һ�ǿ�����talk ZB in 2023, after working as a sports reporter at the Christchurch Star.