Minister of Education

Speech to open the Auckland College of Education Teacher Resource Centre

Thursday 16 March 2000

Embargoed until 4.00pm

Acknowledgments

It gives me great pleasure to be here today to open the new Papakura Education Centre and admire the new headquarters.

I know a lot of effort has gone into getting the centre up and running here. It is a great location and I think will help create a community education focus around this particular area.

I'm particularly pleased that there's more space here for your professional development seminars. I've been quite vocal in my support for professional development for both teachers and principals. As an aside, I'm also a strong advocate of professional development in the state sector in my role as State Services Minister.

Everyone knows that one bout of training before you start teaching is not enough. Our teachers, like all professionals, need to get better all the time. Without high quality, up-to-date, motivated, and highly skilled teachers - our students will never reach their full potential.

Most of the teachers for the next generation of children are already working as teachers in classrooms. They must be given opportunities to upgrade their skills continuously throughout their teaching careers.

I have therefore asked the Ministry of Education to investigate how best we can get a nationally coordinated inservice training, advisory and support network.

The systems developed must be responsive to different schools' needs. But core responsibility must be taken centrally. The schools sector as a whole benefits from quality, upskilled teachers - not just the school a teacher happens to be working in at the time.

So thank you for the important contribution you make to the quality of our teachers and the quality of education our young people receive.

ENDS

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