$24m to go on teacher recruitment

WELLINGTON: The Government has allocated $44 million to recruit 1000 new teachers and to support pupils whose learning has been disrupted by Covid.

Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said $24 million would go towards recruiting close to 1000 additional teachers, expected to comprise 700 international and 300 domestic teachers.

The other $20 million will go towards additional teaching and tutoring services for pupils after more than two years of Covid disruptions, including examination preparation, workshops and oneonone mentoring.

Education unions said the funding and initiatives were welcomed but did not go far enough.

Ms Tinetti said ensuring New Zealand had more teachers was vital.

The longterm goal was to improve the supply of domestic teachers and the quickest way to get experienced teachers into schools was by recruiting teachers trained overseas.

‘‘Overseastrained teachers have always been a valued part of the workforce; they bring diversity and rich experience to our communities.’’

Ms Tinetti said the Government would increase the number of teachers who could train while they were placed in schools, putting more incentives in place to get beginning and returning teachers into hardtostaff roles and expanding its ‘‘career changer’’ scholarship.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said young people had missed crucial time in the classroom in the past two and ahalf years and the impact needed to be addressed headon.

Of the $20 million allocated to supporting pupils, $2 million would go towards support programmes designed specifically for Maori and Pacific pupils and $17.4 million to schools where greater proportions of pupils faced socioeconomic challenges.

New Zealand Post Primary Teachers’ Association president Melanie Webber said more funding to help pupils reengage with learning was ‘‘absolutely the right thing to do’’.

However, schools desperately needed more professional guidance counsellors to build relationships with atrisk pupils and their families before these young people disengaged.

‘‘We need ambulances at the top of the cliff.’’

Ms Webber said aiming to hire more than 700 teachers from overseas ‘‘in an extremely competitive international market’’ seemed optimistic.

‘‘While overseas teachers do bring diversity and rich experience, they do not have any background in the National Certificate of Educational Achievement, or te reo and te ao Maori.

‘‘So it is not an ideal solution by any means.’’

Ms Webber said there were thousands of highly qualified, trained and experienced teachers in communities throughout New Zealand who would come back tomorrow if they were better paid and their workloads were manageable.

NZEI president Liam Rutherford said a comprehensive plan to significantly grow the workforce was needed to reduce class sizes and get better pupiltoteacher ratios.

Schools would decide which pupils were offered the service.

In addition, 500 more dual tuition summer school places were being added, Ms Tinetti said. —