Tracey Martin MP
Spokesperson for Education

More Answers Needed On Education Changes

New Zealand First has commended the extra $359 million the Government is investing in education, but has pointed out that there is no extra funding to get more teachers in our schools.

The Education Ministry stated late last year that only two out of five graduate teachers have permanent fulltime positions in New Zealand three years after graduation.

Education spokesperson Tracey Martin says that perhaps the $40,000 that the Government proposes to use to top up the salary of Executive Principals could instead be used to get a graduate teacher in the classroom.

“Every teacher and principal deserves to be recognises for the work that they do. For the Government to suggest that only 6270 of the thousands of teachers and school leaders are quality professionals is palpably not true.

“We support the sharing of best practice, but we are not confident that rewarding a few will assist with growing the profession as a whole and could create more competition rather than the collegiality required for our students.

“We will be looking closely at the details as the Government deigns to release them,” says Ms Martin.

ENDS

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