April 12, 2017
Pressure on to up teacher qualifications
Education Minister Hekia Parata says she's open to a proposal from the Education Council that all new teachers must have a degree.
The shake up in teacher training isn't one of the raft of changes in the Education (Update) Amendment Bill which will go through its committee stage tomorrow.
But Ms Parata says it's something she raised for discussion with the sector three years ago, and it would put New Zealand on a par with countries it competes with.
It would mean extra work on recruitment, especially for Maori teachers.
"It means that we have to find ways to support young Maori into teaching and we need to see far more of them come in, both in Maori medium and mainstream. Something less than 10 percent of the overall teacher workforce identifies as Maori," Ms Parata says.
She says getting more Maori into teaching will help lift the overall quality of the sector.
FULL INTERVIEW WITH HEKIA PARATA
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