Hon Chris Hipkins

Minister of Education

The Government is pumping more resources into addressing the long term challenge of teacher shortages in our schools by training or supporting 3280 additional teachers over the next four years, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today.

Among initiatives in today’s package, more Kiwis will be incentivised into the teaching profession with scholarships contributing to the fees and living costs of students.

Budget 19 funds 2480 additional trainee teacher places through:
• 1860 TeachNZ scholarships - fees and living costs for trainees studying in hard to staff subject areas,
• 300 Teach First NZ places to recruit graduates and professionals into low decile secondary schools where they teach while completing a postgraduate teaching,
• 240 places in a new employment-based teacher education programme for secondary teachers, and
• 80 Iwi-based scholarships.

It also supports 800 more beginning teachers into their first roles through the National Beginning Teacher Grant (400) and the Voluntary Bonding Scheme expansion (400).

“Our commitment towards thousands of additional teachers will be a shot in the arm to our schools. Children, parents and teachers will all benefit from the influx in teachers and the Government’s commitment to addressing the long term issue of teacher supply,” Chris Hipkins said.

“Schools are crying out for more teachers and we are delivering. More teachers will help with the quality of teaching and education our children receive. It will improve kids’ wellbeing.

“We’re investing more funding in this Budget to get more teachers in front of classrooms than National managed over its entire nine years in office.

“The number of New Zealanders enrolling in initial teacher education (ITE) plummeted by about 40% under the National Government.

“That’s why we’re creating financial incentives for ITE providers to increase the enrolment of ITE students and ensuring funding committed to teacher training cannot be used for other fields of study.

“The funding also supports strengthened Teaching Council requirements that will improve teaching quality such as the increased length of student placements in schools and are expected to lead to better preparation of graduating teachers.

“In planning for the future, we’re anticipating more students in Māori-language education. There’s currently a shortage of teachers skilled in te reo Māori and we’ll be partnering with iwi to design and pilot regional scholarships, which will support Māori students to train and remain in the profession.

“This is a Government that is funding more teachers to help deliver better education. These changes sit alongside our other investments in schools.”

Education Workforce Strategy

The Government is also looking well ahead to what will be needed in our education workforce of the future – through the development of an Education Workforce Strategy, in partnership with the sector, Chris Hipkins said.

“A group of respected sector leaders has co-designed a vision, and is developing a strategy for the whole of the education workforce. This will define the unique role of the teacher and other key roles, technology and support systems likely to be required in the future, out to the year 2032. This vision is being released by the Ministry today.

“It will also map out what career pathways are needed for the education workforce - to ensure our young people continue to have access to a world-class education, and learn the skills they need in the digital world of today and the future,” Chris Hipkins said.

The Budget package:

ends

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