Hon Anne Tolley
Minister of Education

12 October 2011

Increased focus on recruiting high-quality teachers

Education Minister Anne Tolley has announced the next step in the Government’s work to attract high-calibre candidates into teaching as a career.

“Effective teaching has the biggest impact on results for students, and this starts with recruiting high-quality teachers,” says Mrs Tolley.

“We are concentrating on recruiting quality New Zealand candidates into teaching, in a targeted approach which will focus on maths and science teaching, alongside Maori medium, bilingual education and specialist secondary teachers of te reo Maori.

“We will also look at ways to attract many more men, and more Maori and Pasifika teachers, to ensure that our future teaching workforce more closely reflects the make up of our communities.

“Research shows that many talented graduates see teaching as a second-choice career. We want talented graduates to look at teaching as a first-choice career, and one that needs the very best candidates.”

A Request for Proposals will go out today from the Ministry of Education for the development of a new and more cost-effective promotional strategy.

“Previous recruitment campaigns have focused on attracting the right numbers of candidates into teacher training,” says Mrs Tolley.

“With teacher shortages largely over, we can now focus on recruiting the very best people in the subject areas where they are most needed.”

ENDS

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