Carter Chris: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Carter Chris: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:15970] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the issues raised around the Teachers Council and around teaching in general. I begin my remarks by noting that yesterday in Parliament we had a very interesting education lunch where 20 teachers were recognised for their outstanding contribution to education in New Zealand in receiving the excellence in education award which is done annually. I spoke as education Minister at that lunch and I noted that New Zealand teachers generally are among the world’s best. That is very much evidenced by the fact that New Zealand 15-year-olds score very highly in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment. We are the top-scoring country in the English-speaking world in literacy numeracy and science; and only Finland Korea and Singapore beat us overall. But we are in the top layer of achievers or at least should I say some of our 15-year-olds are. 
So we have some real quality teaching and learning going on in our schools and of course even if one is the best one still wants to do better still. We are talking about educating the next generation of New Zealanders both for their own potential and for the potential of our nation. 
The Teachers Council is an important component in ensuring that teacher standards in New Zealand are the very best. The Teachers Council has been dealing with quite a range of issues such as disciplinary matters involving teachers who contravene regulations around their work in schools and although it is a very small number nevertheless it does happen; and also competency issues and the registration of beginning teachers in New Zealand and overseas-trained teachers. 
As the previous speaker Mr Jones just noted there were about 8858 applications for the various categories of teacher registration during the last quarter. The speed of processing of teacher applications has increased considerably which is a very heartening sign. About 90 percent of applicants are processed within 6 weeks. 
A number of speakers mentioned the delays sometimes around the registration of overseas-trained teachers. Generally there is not a problem but where there is a problem of equivalency often in the training process then there are some difficulties around getting a speedy resolution as to whether that teacher is competent to teach in a New Zealand school. I am sure no member of this House would want to see any child in New Zealand being taught by somebody who did not have the competent pedagogical skills to be able to teach properly. 
I know that Madam Chair like me was a teacher for many years before coming into Parliament and I see a number of other ex-teachers sitting in the Chamber. We all know that the best possible resource in education is a skilled teacher. No matter how much is put in by way of equipment—information and communications technology infrastructure reading materials equipment for teachers—still the most effective learning outcomes are created by effective teachers. So we want the very best teachers teaching in front of New Zealand students. 
The Teachers Council has a very important role to make sure that any overseas-trained teacher has sufficient skills to be registered in New Zealand. To make that process flow more easily we have ability for a temporary teaching registration to be in place. The individuals are given those and they are able to upskill themselves to reach equivalency and to be able to be effective teachers in the New Zealand teaching environment. So that is very important. 
We also have a little bit of an obstacle sometimes where we have overseas-trained teachers getting overseas institutions to respond to send verification of qualifications. I have been working very closely with the Teachers Council to try to make sure that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority the body that deals with registration of equivalency in qualifications is working more closely. We have been having very regular meetings. 
I have been getting regular reports too as I move around schools particularly those in rural areas where there are shortages in areas like technology and second-language teaching and they are unable to get sufficient specialists in those areas. Often overseas-trained teachers are keen for a lifestyle change in New Zealand so rural areas particularly the more remote ones in New Zealand are often very attractive destinations for those teachers to live in. We need to make sure those teachers are registered and able to teach in our classrooms. 
We have also used the council to try to give greater guidance for beginning teachers so a code has been developed so that teacher training providers—the universities mostly but not always—have a greater clarity about the skills that a beginning teacher needs to take to the classroom. That has been a very important function of the New Zealand Teachers Council and I think it has done some excellent work there about making sure that our young beginning teachers have sufficient focus and sufficient skills to be able to be the most effective teachers they can be for young learners in our country. 
I would like to say that I feel the Teachers Council is going well but as we all know every organisation can do better. I am working closely with it and I am working closely with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to streamline these processes so that we can maximise the use of our migrant teacher community give greater guidance to beginning teachers and to make sure we have in place the structures to ensure that we have a quality teaching profession in New Zealand. 
Report noted.