Nanaia Mahuta
Education Spokesperson

4 September 2012

Cabinet reckless to ignore advice on charter school teachers

The Government has put the education and safety of charter school children at risk by ignoring the advice of its own officials on who should be allowed to teach them, says Nanaia Mahuta.

The Ministry of Education recommended that all teachers at charter schools should be registered. But the Cabinet instead opted to allow unregistered teachers into classrooms, as long as the charter schools also have some registered staff.

“The Government’s own experts advised it that the “potential for a negative impact on students’ education from teachers who do not meet the minimum standards for the profession is high.” So why go ahead and allow unregistered teachers into the classroom? It is reckless and doesn’t make sense.

“The Ministry’s advice states that teacher registration is “one of the most influential levers in raising teacher quality.” And it says leaving charter schools to operate outside the programme of work to improve teacher quality will “significantly damage the credibility of the Crown.”

“The Government quite rightly makes a song and dance about teacher quality. But its decision on charter school teachers shows it is all talk. It doesn’t really care at all.

“John Banks, Hekia Parata and John Key should tell the public why they know better than the Ministry of Education. Better still they should admit they got it wrong on charter school teachers, and require teachers in all classrooms to be registered,” says Nanaia Mahuta.

ENDS

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