Hon Nikki Kaye
Minister of Education
17 May 2017
Media Statement
Budget 2017: $5.2m to fund more teachers in priority subjects
Education Minister Nikki Kaye has announced that Budget 2017 will commit $5.2 million of operating funding over the next
four years to expand the innovative teacher training programme, Teach First NZ, to provide places for a further 90
participants.
“This funding is part of the Government’s drive to strengthen the teaching profession,” says Ms Kaye.
“Ensuring we have high quality teachers across all subjects is hugely important to us. Teach First NZ is great for
recruiting high quality graduates in subjects that at the moment are harder to staff, such as maths, science and
technology.”
Teach First NZ is the country’s only schooling sector, employment-based initial teacher education (ITE) programme and
has been operating as a pilot since 2013.
“In 2016 we committed more than $9 million to a package of initiatives which included lifting the number of science,
technology and maths teachers and reducing the loss of beginning teachers.
“Budget 2017 will allocate $5.2 million over the next four years of reprioritised funding from Vote Tertiary Education
to expand Teach First NZ and recruit the very best new teachers.”
To date, 42 per cent of Teach First NZ graduates teach maths, science or technology, and all of them teach in schools
with some of the biggest achievement challenges. They have directly served 14,000 New Zealand students, including 4,000
Māori and Pasifika.
The funding will provide two further cohorts of 45 participants each, starting in 2018. The emphasis continues to be on
STM subjects, and graduates will be trained to teach in schools with a high proportion of Māori and Pasifika students,
and students from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
“Teach First NZ graduates have proved hugely influential on the students they teach during their training, making a real
difference to young people in subjects that can be challenging,” says Ms Kaye.
“This Government is continuing to invest heavily in our children’s futures and we have proven our commitment to
transforming the education system to make it more responsive to the needs of learners, to raise educational achievement,
and to improve life outcomes and employment options.
“Today’s announcement comes alongside the creation of a new induction and mentoring programme to support provisionally
registered teachers to become fully registered before their certificate expires, and the lifting of a freeze on new
teacher education programmes from 2018.”
ends