Push to scrap Teaching Council fees stoke controversy
The Teaching Council came under fire last week after announcing plans to increase fees by double.
Teaching Council CE Lesley Hoskin had confirmed: “The fee is doubling to $157 every year starting February 2021. This equates to $3 per week, an increase of $1.60 per week to what teachers are already paying.”
The backlash has been substantial, with teachers making a vote of no confidence in the council this week.
Post Primary Teachers’ Association president, Jack Boyle, has declined to comment on the vote until he had discussed the matter with his staff. However, he did inform RNZ that the no-confidence ballot followed the council’s announcement on Budget day that its fees would rise.
The union is calling for key resignations from the Teaching Council, following the vote.
The fee hike was instigated following news the government would be cutting funding, which previously accounted for around 60 percent of the council’s expenses.
The New Zealand National Party has jumped on the bandwagon, claiming it would scrap teacher registration fees altogether and fund the Teaching Council directly. National’s Education spokesperson Nikki Kaye said:
“New Zealand has had long-standing teacher supply and retention issues. This is a small way that we can reduce costs for teachers and is one of a number of policies National intends to implement to reinforce the value of educators in our society,” Ms Kaye says. A National Government would get rid of teacher registration fees and instead pay the Teaching Council directly on an ongoing basis, which will initially be around $16 million a year.”
That’s pretty rich that National is coming to the support of teachers and education. They pretty much destroyed the teaching profession making it unattractive to new graduates and specialist. They created the dysfunctional teaching council to begin with. The teaching council does not represent us as teachers and are a make-work scheme created by National to reward a few people who promoted National view. Get rid of the teaching council, the bureaucracy and give teachers tenure after 3 years like Canada and other advanced western nations.
Interesting that the National Party suddenly wants what is best for teachers and education. The Teachers Council is too expensive and dabbling in areas of no concern to them. Teachers do not want Professional Development delivered by our council. There are already many many PD providers meeting our needs as professionals. The Teachers Council needs to stick to its core purpose; to ensure teachers are suitable and to follow up on complaints made agaist teachers.
It appears that both the NZEI and PPTA need to invest in having conversations with its members. The desire to have and independent body to oversee the functions of the teaching profession, can only be if teachers are willing to fund the council itself. To invite political paws can only lead to scratch marks the profession can ill afford.