It's day one of term three and already there's talk of 'time off' for students.
Some schools simply can't find enough teachers and may be forced to roster students to stay home. And other schools are having to recruit from overseas.
Greymouth High School students are back and so too is a full teaching roster for the first time this year.
"We've been waiting eight months to employ an HoD of maths. It's been a big thing so I'm very very happy," said Greymouth High School principal Samantha Mortimer.
Another three teachers have been hired to kick off term 3 but all had to come from overseas.
Greymouth's students have had a disruptive year, rostered off in term 1 because of teacher shortages and in term 2 because of nationwide strike action.
"To be totally honest we may have had to roster home even without the industrial action because at certain pinch times we just didn't have enough teachers," Mortimer said.
That's still the reality for other schools around the country.
"I assume some schools are still going to have to roster off especially if we get hit with flu season or COVID hits again," Mortimer said.
"We're still in a situation like many other industries where staffing is a problem, so when a teacher leaves being able to find a suitable replacement in a timely way is problematic," added Secondary Principals' Association president Vaughan Couillault.
Teachers are giving the Government homework - solve the problem.
"There's the demand and supply thing. We know we're not training enough of our own teachers, we've got to grow our own teachers," Couillault said.
Or follow Greymouth High's lead and rely on imports.
