Secondary & primary push for teachers

New teachers could soon be trained for both primary and secondary levels to help smooth the transition for students.

Education Minister Nikki Kaye is open to the idea — saying the proposal was part of “an important discussion about flexibility”.

In what would be a significant shake-up of how teachers are trained, the Education Council has proposed a number of changes to initial teacher education. Others include requiring would-be teachers to meet higher literacy and numeracy standards from 2020.

Now most teacher education programmes prepare their students to teach at a traditional level such as early childhood, primary or secondary.

The council proposes developing programmes to train new teachers to teach across different ranges of year levels. It says programmes could focus on particular years. For example, early childhood/primary (0 to 8 years of age), or middle school (9 to 14).

The latter would see a person trained to teach at year levels now spanning primary, intermediate and secondary.

The council said this would give teachers more diverse career opportunities within schools and “communities of learning” — schools that work together and share some staff.

It would also let schools and early childhood centres better support children as they moved between

traditional year levels. Research showed that if a student experienced difficulty after a transition between school levels, they were much more likely to drop out of education.

Previous minister Hekia Parata sought advice on how the transition between preschool and school could be strengthened, and there is now a preference for new schools to be built in campus style, offering ECE, primary and secondary schooling on one site.

Post Primary Teachers’ Association president Jack Boyle said any changes to training needed to be supported by adequate professional development and support for the 60,000 teachers now in schools.

“The focus doesn’t need to be on structural change for the sake of saying, ‘We’re doing something different.’ It needs to be on the people in the room. If every teacher had access to guaranteed professional learning and support, then I think you’d see a lot more improvement in what is often called the achievement gap.”

Boyle said most new teachers learned more in the classroom and many secondary schools already employed teachers who had degrees in primary education.

The PPTA has already expressed concern at another council proposal, to eventually make all would-be teachers complete a degree in their chosen subject as well as a postgraduate qualification in teaching. The union said that could worsen teacher shortages.

Now secondary teachers generally have a degree in the subject they teach and a graduate diploma in teaching, with more primary teachers having degrees in education.

Any changes floated by the Education Council are significant, given its role as the professional organisation advocating for teachers. It has outlined the proposal and other possible changes in a discussion paper and called for submissions by July 7.

Kaye said she had been briefed on the proposals, and it was important to respect the independent consultation process.

“Once the consultation has been completed, the council has confirmed that it will present its final report to the sector and Government. I’m advised that some of the proposals could have potential cost implications, so these would need to be considered.”