Education Council rebrand to cost $220k

The Education Council says it will cost $220,000 to change its name to the “Teaching Council” under a bill now before Parliament.

The council says in a submission it will also have to pay $105,000 a year in extra meeting fees under the bill’s proposal to expand it from nine appointed members to 13 members, including seven elected by teachers. And electing members will cost $150,000, plus $10,000 for training new members, every three years.

The council is required by law to fund itself through fees for teaching certificates, so the increased costs are likely to mean teachers pay more.

Former National Party Education Minister Nikki Kaye said the name change was “a huge waste of money”.

“The Education Council is representative of a range of education stakeholders, and I hope that on the select committee we can try and change the name back,” she said.

But Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the name change cost would be only a “one-off”.

“It would be a one-off cost, as there was when the National Government chose to rename it to the Education Council against the wishes of the teaching profession.”

He told the Cabinet in January that the council was funded by teachers’ fees so the council “will need to consider the costs associated with the proposals in this paper . . . in determining a new fee level”.

The council was already proposing, before the election, to more than double fees for three-year teachers’ practising certificates from $220.80 to $550 to cover its increased costs compared with the former Teachers Council, which it replaced in July 2015.

The new council took over the Teachers Council’s responsibility for registration and discipline, plus a wider mandate to lead the teaching profession and raise its status.

The National Government gave it $21 million from taxpayers in 2016 as “transitional funding” until it consulted teachers about the new fees, but its consultation document last year said the existing fees would cover only $8.5m of its $18m costs in 2018-19.

The extra ongoing costs of an expanded and partly elected council, averaging $158,333 a year, would add 0.9 per cent to the council’s total costs, and probably to teacher fees.

Education Council chairwoman Barbara Ala’alatoa said last month that the fee increase proposed last year would be put on hold until after the bill changing the council’s name and structure was passed.

Teachers’ groups support the name change and the election by teachers of a majority of council members, although the NZ Educational Institute’s submission urges “a cautious fiscal approach” to the rebranding.

The education and workforce select committee is due to report back on the bill by August 1.— Simon Collins