OPINION
The Teaching Council wants to overhaul how teachers are taught and have higher entry requirements for the profession.
Teaching Council chief executive Lesley Hoskin has warned the “radical system changes” will cost and the government will need to make the “necessary financial commitment”.
“The council believes teachers, both new and experienced, are passionate, dedicated and capable. But for too long they have been let down by a system that doesn’t give them the structure or the resources they need.”
[…] “What’s not fair is that we are saying teachers have failed the system when actually the system has failed teachers.”
[…] The council had set out a roadmap in 2017 which they wanted to see implemented now, Hoskin said.
This roadmap included a post-graduate qualification becoming the benchmark for becoming a teacher, having higher entry requirements to “attract a higher calibre of candidates”, making sure graduate teachers had subject knowledge which was relevant to the curriculum with a focus on English, maths and science, and providing more opportunities for practice-related research.
[…] The system should move towards a post-graduate teacher education qualification “and make that the benchmark for registration of new teachers”, she said.
“That would mean that applicants would need strong subject knowledge in at least one curriculum learning area that’s relevant to teaching gained in a prior degree.”
Steps also needed to be taken to make teaching more desirable, she said.
“If we want to make teaching a really attractive career we have to go back and have a look at the attractiveness of it [in terms of] a salary, if you’ve got a school leaver looking at what choices they might make, you just know one of the considerations has to be what’s my learning capacity, what are the other benefits and do I end up with a huge debt at the end of my training.”
RNZ
So more three Rs and less te R. No more courses on Maori weaving and how to placate the local taniwha. Oh, and actually hiring teachers for what they know instead of just how woke they are. And paying them the money they deserve.
Sounds good to me. Here’s hoping the Government follows through.