Government set to launch another experiment on children

15 June 2016

The Minister of Education has not been able to justify her proposal to put unqualified and unregistered on-the-job trainee teachers in front of classrooms, says Tauranga school principal and NZEI National Executive member Jan Tinetti.

Ms Tinetti will be appearing before the Education and Science Select Committee this morning to voice educators’ alarm at the latest government plan which she says treats children as guinea pigs in a dangerous experiment.

“All children deserve to be taught by a qualified and professionally trained teacher,” says Jan Tinetti.

“There is no justifiable reason that allows such a drastic step in primary education. This move would undermine the quality of teaching and it is not acceptable that some children miss out on being taught by professionally-trained teachers."

Jan Tinetti says the proposal appears to be very poorly thought through, particularly when there is an oversupply of qualified and trained beginner teachers looking for two year placements in order to gain registration.

Under the current system, beginner teachers who have already completed approved tertiary training are required to spend two years in a classroom with mentoring and induction programmes before they qualify for full registration.

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