More beginning teachers will benefit Auckland children

More beginning teachers will benefit Auckland children

30 November 2017

Children and schools will benefit from the extension of a beginning teacher scheme in Auckland next year.

NZEI Te Riu Roa has welcomed the extension of the scheme, which puts more teachers in schools, and gives beginning teachers a great start to their careers. The scheme provides resourcing for schools to employ extra beginning teachers for up to six months to shadow an experienced teacher in year 1-4 classes. The school must agree to employ the beginning teacher for two years to get to full registration.

However, NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart says that more needs to be done immediately to address the Auckland teacher shortage.

“While this scheme will ease the pressure on schools and children, who may have been facing doubled-up classes, a whole raft of measures needs to be put in place now, before the start of the new school year, to avert a crisis.”

This includes extending the voluntary bonding scheme to all genuinely hard-to-staff schools, regardless of location, and to better support and resource mentor teachers and schools taking on either beginning or returning teachers. Increasing an allowance for teachers working in priority decile 1 and 2 schools, and fully subsidising teacher refresher courses to support people returning to teaching, would also help alleviate the shortage.

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