This is the second report from the 2025 National Survey of Secondary Schools, and focuses on secondary teacher perspectives (the first report focused on principals and is available here).
NZCER collected data from teachers in all English-medium secondary schools (including composite schools and teen parent units) between Term 4 2025 and early Term 1 2026. After data cleaning, 830 teacher responses from 126 schools were included in analysis.
Findings are presented in each of the six survey domains below.
Teaching and learning
- Less than half of teachers indicated having sufficient support to teach students with additional learning needs such as students with disabilities, students with learning difficulties, students with physical or mental health or behaviour issues, and neurodivergent students. Most teachers taught students learning English as an additional language but less than half indicated they have skills and knowledge to do so or have sufficient support.
- Building on prior knowledge, managing cognitive load, and responding to individual learners are central to how teachers approach teaching in classes where they feel most effective. Opportunities for open-ended, dialogic, and community-connected learning are less frequent, but used at least occasionally by most teachers. Two-thirds of teachers were feeling under time pressure to get through content either frequently (33%) or always/nearly always (33%).
- Compared with 2018 and 2021, more teachers agreed or strongly agreed that they incorporated tikanga Māori and te reo Māori into their teaching. Kaiako Māori were more likely to use te reo Māori in their classrooms at higher proficiency levels.
- Two-thirds of teachers said they were currently integrating generative artificial intelligence (AI) into their teaching practices. The most common use was to develop learning materials. Teachers who don’t use AI in their teaching practice were concerned about quality, bias, and ethical impacts.
- Just under half of teachers said climate change was a focus in some of their teaching. In these teachers’ classes, students often learnt about climate impacts and solutions, but were less likely to be undertaking climate action.
Curriculum and assessment
- A majority of teachers thought NCEA should be “improved rather than removed”. There were mixed views on whether the proposed new qualifications were going in the right direction, with questions about the rationale for the change.
- Teachers had mixed views about the direction of curriculum change, but clear concerns about pace and engagement with the teaching profession.
Inclusion
- Most teachers thought Te Tiriti o Waitangi was widely enacted in school values and day-to-day activities.
- Teachers reported high use of inclusive and culturally responsive practices such as group learning, peer support strategies, and knowing which cultures their students identify with. There were lower levels of agreement for practices connecting with Pacific learners.
Wellbeing
Teacher wellbeing
- Teachers’ views on job satisfaction, morale, and workload have remained largely consistent over time. Most teachers enjoy their job. Morale has improved to 2018 levels, after a decline in 2021, which may have been associated with additional demands and uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Around a third of teachers disagreed or strongly disagreed that their workload is manageable (31%), that their level of stress is manageable (35%), and agreed or strongly agreed that their workload is so high they cannot do justice to their students (34%).
- There is a small proportion of teachers (14%) who do not report that their school cares about the wellbeing of its staff, but this has declined from 24% in 2021.
- Nearly all teachers (91%) perceived they have sufficient autonomy in teaching but only half agreed they have opportunities to participate in school decisions.
Student wellbeing
- More teachers (86%) agreed or strongly agreed that student wellbeing is a strong focus in their school compared with 2021 (72%).
- Students still have unmet support needs. Only 60% of teachers indicated that vulnerable students can get timely external support.
- Three-quarters of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that their school had an effective school-wide approach for encouraging positive behaviours. However, somewhat fewer (60%) agreed or strongly agreed that their school had an effective school-wide approach for managing student behaviour across the school. Most teachers felt safe, but disruptive behaviour has increased since 2015.
Support and resourcing
- Around three-quarters of teachers get the support they need from their school to do their job effectively.
- More teachers than in 2021 and 2018 have had training to recognise mental health warning signs in students.
- Teachers had mixed views on the usefulness of PLD they have had in the past 3 years. Around two-thirds of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that they had had useful subject specialist PLD from teacher networks or subject associations (66%) and useful school-wide PLD (62%, up from 30% in 2021).
- Teachers have diverse future PLD needs, but PLD about AI is wanted by the highest proportion of teachers.
- Most early career teachers felt well supported (79%) and guided into effective practices (78%). Most mentors felt valued by school leaders but still face challenges in getting time allocated or useful professional learning.
Collaborative relationships
- Most teachers (70%) agreed or strongly agreed they had opportunities to see and discuss the work of other teachers in their department or subject area, but fewer (48%) had these opportunities across subject areas.
Teachers’ working experience and future plans
- Interest in being principal has remained stable at around 10% of teachers. These teachers are most attracted to being able to set the direction of a school. Teachers who are not interested in becoming a principal are put off by being diverted from teaching, and the workload.
- Teachers’ career plans have remained stable over the past decade, with 40% intending to continue in their role, and 32% wanting to build their leadership skills.
- The most-selected changes that teachers would like to their work were a reduction in the scale and pace of change (71%) and more support staff/teacher aides (62%). Since 2015, the proportion of teachers wanting more support staff has increased each survey cycle.