Teachers lack confidence in Teachers Council restructure

1 November 2013

Teachers lack confidence in Teachers Council restructure

The Education Minister has thrown the baby out with the bath water in her restructure of the Teachers Council.

NZEI Te Riu Roa National Secretary Paul Goulter said there was no evidence to support many of the changes that had been made and none to support the changes to governance.

“The sector clearly wanted an independent body whose members were directly elected out of the profession by the profession, along with appointments made in the public interest,” he said.

“The Minister claims to be providing independence and fully entrusting the profession and yet she retains the right to directly appoint every member. This position is totally contradictory.

“This was a missed opportunity to create a truly independent professional body with the full confidence of the sector,” he said.

“NZEI welcomes the move to make the council an independent statutory body, but how can it be independent when all of its governance is directly appointed by a politician? There will be a lack of ‘ownership’ by members.”

“There is not even mention of a requirement for the majority of members to be teachers, which doesn’t make sense in an organisation required to promote and monitor the standards of the profession,” said Mr Goulter.

ENDS

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