University welcomes investment in specialist teachers

University welcomes investment in specialist teachers

Today’s announcement of a $9 million package to address the shortage of teachers in high-demand subjects has been welcomed by educational leaders at the University of Auckland.

The Government will offer an extra 100 Teach NZ Scholarships worth $1.8 million per year for teaching training in science, technology and maths (STM), to lift graduates in these areas by the end of 2017.

Professor Graeme Aitken, Dean of the Faculty of Education and Social Work, says the faculty welcomes the investment and will be complementing the initiative with scholarships of its own.

“Through the generous funding of the Woolf Fisher Trust, we will be offering 15 scholarships for primary teaching graduates to complete a further year of study at honours level specialising in mathematics and science,” he says.

The faculty is also developing interactive online resources (the Online STEM School) to support the teaching of physics and mathematics at Levels 1, 2 and 3 NCEA, with a view to increasing the number of students who are engaged successfully in these subjects – especially in areas, like rural communities, where specialist teachers are not available.

Other Government measures include putting $1 million into an Auckland programme to employ 40 new teachers through to full registration, which will include a recruitment campaign focused on bringing Kiwi teachers back home.

Further investment will also go towards actively promoting teaching as a career to tertiary science, technology and mathematics students.

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