Hon Bill English

National Education Spokesman

29 September 2004

20,000 students taught by ineffective teachers

A report into new teachers shows that around 20,000 children are being taught by teachers that the Education Review Office deems as 'not effective', says National's Education spokesman, Bill English.

He is commenting on an ERO report into teachers in their second year on the job. The report finds that almost half of new secondary teachers and a third of new primary teachers are not performing.

The report says 'there is significant concern about the quality of teaching of a significant minority of year two teachers and about the quality of support they receive'.

Mr English says this affects between 800 and 1,000 teachers, and 20,000 students.

"This is a much bigger scandal than Cambridge High School," he says.

"Parents have every right to expect that the teacher at the front of the classroom will be competent. They will be alarmed by this report and even more alarmed to see that nothing is being done to fix it.

"New teachers are more likely to be recruited by low decile schools where the need for effective teaching is greatest. ERO's findings go some way towards explaining the low achievement levels in these schools.

"These teachers will be returning to school on Monday to teach another term, and unless they improve significantly they will still be ineffective next year.

"Parents have been led to believe that more teachers and bigger salaries will improve teaching but this report shows the issue is one of quality, not quantity.

"It's time for Trevor Mallard to wake up and see that simply throwing money at the problems in education will not make them go away," says Mr English.

ENDS

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