Why New Zealand must strengthen its teaching profession

Why New Zealand must strengthen its teaching profession
with John Morris

John Morris and Rose Patterson have been investigating the factors influencing the quality of New Zealand’s teaching profession. Join us for the launch of their first report in a series of three.

Teachers are New Zealand’s greatest educational asset. Two thirds of the education spend is on teacher salaries, and teachers have the biggest influence outside of the home on student achievement and development.

Yet teachers do not have the professional status they deserve, and this is a major deterrent to attracting the best and brightest people into teaching. The system also needs to better realise the potential of the current teaching workforce. Teachers are often overlooked as essential partners in educational reform.

The New Zealand Initiative’s series of reports draws on polices from abroad to explore how New Zealand’s teaching profession could be strengthened.

About the speaker:
John Morris served as Headmaster of Auckland Grammar School for 20 years till 2012. He was awarded a Woolf Fisher Fellowship for Outstanding Educational Leadership in 1999, and this year was awarded the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours’ List for services to education. He recently served on the Ministerial Review for the New Zealand Teachers Council and is on the Implementation Board for Partnership Schools. John is also on the board of Education New Zealand and a Commissioner for the Tertiary Education Commission. His work introducing Cambridge International Examinations to New Zealand has seen him present in Asia and the Middle East on leadership in education.

ends

© Scoop Media