Pillay Lynne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Pillay Lynne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:620;Page:15957] 
6.  
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour—Waitakere) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: What reports has he received on proposed changes to the provision of teacher professional development and support? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I have seen a suggestion that the entire allocation for teacher professional development and curriculum support should be scrapped. This proposal would affect thousands of teachers who are benefiting from professional development aimed at improving how they teach maths reading and writing with the ultimate benefits going to the children they teach. There would for example be no laptops for teachers no programmes aimed at reducing truancy no high-speed Internet access and no help for gifted children. It is very clear from Bill English’s proposal that he is out of touch with what is important in schools. 
Lynne Pillay 
: Does the Minister intend to adopt the suggestion that targeted funding for teacher professional development and curriculum support be abolished; if not why not? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No. Our Government is committed to raising education standards and that means investing money where it can make the biggest difference as opposed to the approach proposed by Mr English who said he would cut the $200 million that the ministry spends on professional development. 
Hon Bill English 
: Has the Minister seen a report from his own public agency the Education Review Office which states that half of new secondary teachers are ineffective and a third of new primary teachers are ineffective; and why does he not get on and fix the teachers who are in classrooms today in front of 20000 children instead of engaging in stupid political point-scoring? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: This Government is working very hard with younger teachers and older teachers by supplying high-quality professional development to help literacy and numeracy in a way that the previous Government did not do. That is why our records are not as good as they should be. And National says it would scrap professional development! This is a Government for standards; that is an Opposition with no standards at all. 
Deborah Coddington 
: Can the Minister confirm that he has spent $32.3 million on providing facilitators to help teachers in just 100 schools with professional development in literacy; that it is a complete failure; and that that is why he is refusing to release to me under the Official Information Act reports that confirm as much? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No I cannot confirm that. I have abstained to date from giving incomplete reports to the member. 
Bernie Ogilvy 
: Will the Minister consider a shift in focus for the Teachers Council from processing teacher registrations to proactive evaluation of teacher quality including coordinating professional development and support; if not why not? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I might at the point that I am convinced it is capable of doing it. 
Bernie Ogilvy 
: What confidence does the Minister have in the Teachers Council the body supposedly entrusted with responsibility for teacher quality when the council has taken nearly 3 long years and has spent $95000 yet still has not completed its very first task which was to produce a code of ethics? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I think it is fair to say that the Teachers Council has not performed up to my expectations.