Education Minister Hekia Parata recently formed a committee to review the role and functions of the teachers' council as part of the Government's programme of work to improve pupil achievement.
The New Zealand Teachers' Council is an autonomous crown entity and regulatory body which maintains the register of teachers.
Ms Parata said the goal was to ensure the council was a strong, professional body that would set and enforce high standards, promote effective teaching practice, develop the professional community of teachers and lead public discussion on education issues.
The committee would investigate the council's capability to focus on these roles, and what structural and legislative arrangements could be needed to ensure effectiveness, she said.
However, University of Otago College of Education senior lecturer Darrell Latham was concerned the minister might constrain the ability of how the teachers' council operated and restrict its autonomy.
He believed it was an opportune time to reconsider the status of the council.
"Clearly, the time has come for the New Zealand Teachers' Council to be given complete independent status and have its powers broadened.
"It needs to be completely independent in terms of being a self-regulating professional body for teaching, and free from control by the Government," he said.
"My perception is that the current teachers' council is too tied to existing Government policy and does not have the freedom to inform on critical policy issues facing New Zealand education.
"The teachers' council is currently constrained in its ability to speak out, and maintaining independent status would enhance professional standards, while maintaining regulatory practice, including reporting to Parliament."
Dr Latham said the proof of the situation lay in the teachers' council's recent actions.
"When did you ever hear the teachers' council leading the profession with respect to the changes to educational professional standards such as the benefits, or otherwise, of league tables and National Standards?"
He said the General Teaching Council for Scotland recently became the world's first independent, self-regulating professional body for teaching after extensive consultation and government support. Scotland had much wider parameters and much more flexibility in determining fitness to teach and handling competency cases.
"An independent New Zealand Teachers' Council, based on the Scottish model, will ensure a more robust professional organisation that can help develop the teaching profession as well as lead public discussion on education issues," he said.
Otago Secondary Principals' Association president Brent Russell said secondary principals across New Zealand agreed with Dr Latham.
"Clearly, we should be an independent body. It's just like having a law society. It seems to work for the law profession.
"Our teachers' council is mature enough to govern itself - obviously there would need to be some issues around structure and composition - but it would seem to me to make sense."
Otago Primary Principals' Association president Brent Caldwell was unavailable for comment.
