How severe is Hong Kong’s teacher shortage? Scarcity of qualified staff forces primary schools to hire untrained candidates as turnover rate soars

The lack of qualified candidates has forced schools to hire more untrained teachers who need a government permit to teach temporarily. At some schools, as many as three in 10 teachers do not have teaching certificates.

Latest official figures show that 179 out of more than 500 primary schools do not have a full staff of qualified, registered teachers.

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In the 2018-19 academic year, 120 primary schools, or under a quarter of the total, were not fully staffed with trained teachers. At the time, the turnover rate was relatively low, at about 4 per cent.

The wave of emigration from Hong Kong in recent years has sent the turnover rate soaring to 8.5 per cent in the 2022-23 academic year, as many teachers resigned to move overseas, according to principals.

About 1,500 trained teachers qualify to be registered as teachers each year. The education authorities control the total, mindful that Hong Kong’s population is shrinking and fewer teachers will be needed in the future.

Polly Chan Suk-yee, a primary school principal and vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Aided Primary School Heads Association, said the number of teaching vacancies had risen in recent years because teachers had resigned to emigrate.

“Due to the hiring difficulties, schools sometimes have no choice but to hire graduates who do not have the PGDE,” she said.

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In another indication of the scarcity of teachers, there were 3,466 permits issued to untrained teachers in the first eight months of this year, exceeding the 3,436 over the whole of last year and recent years.

Although there is no shortage of applicants for the PGDE programme at the five universities, competition is keen because the number accepted is restricted.

“Sometimes, untrained teachers need to wait two to three years to be enrolled in the PGDE programmes,” Chan said.

So Ping-fai, a principal and acting chairman of the Subsidised Primary Schools Council, said it was easier to hire teachers this year compared with last year, when schools were feeling the brunt of resignations by those emigrating.

“This year, hiring English teachers is still not easy as they could take up other roles outside the education field and be more prepared to emigrate,” he said.

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There were not many candidates with teaching certificates who were qualified to teach English, he said.

Last December, the Education Bureau told schools that the University of Hong Kong, Chinese University and Education University would increase their intakes for the part-time PGDE programme in some subjects given the “higher than expected” number of untrained teachers.

School principals could nominate at most two serving teachers to sign up for the PGDE programme.