Labour cuts National's planned teacher bonus

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Education Minister Chris Hipkins said National's plan would have created a $37.5 million "hole" in the education budget.

The new Government has cut back a plan by former Education Minister Nikki Kaye to pay a bonus of up to $17,500 to all beginning teachers who work in any Auckland school for at least three years.

Nikki Kaye
Nikki Kaye
The centrepiece of a minimal $9.5 million package to tackle the teacher shortage, announced today, is extending the $17,500 grant through the voluntary bonding scheme for beginning teachers to Auckland schools in decile 2 and 3.

The bonus currently applies only in decile 1 and isolated schools. Kaye had planned to extend it to all Auckland schools, at a cost which Education Minister Chris Hipkins said would have been $37.5 million a year.

He said that would have created a $37.5 million "hole" in the education budget.

Hipkins' package includes:

• Expanding the eligibility of the Voluntary Bonding Scheme (VBS) to beginning teachers who start in decile 2 and 3 schools in Auckland next year.

• Expanding VBS nationally to new teachers of science, technology, maths and te reo Māori.

Chris Hipkins
Chris Hipkins

• Expanding the Auckland Beginner Teacher Project to increase the employment of beginning teachers in permanent or fixed-term roles in Auckland primary schools and to support them to become fully certificated teachers. The scheme has helped 40 schools to employ beginning teachers before their rolls grew enough to justify an extra teacher.

• Help to retain experienced teachers whose practising certificates are about to expire, and attract back teachers who haven't taught for six years, by covering the cost of the Teacher Education Refresher course.

• Financial support to schools needing to attract and retain teachers with limited authority to teach in skill areas that are in short supply.

• Promoting and making it faster, easier and cheaper for overseas teachers from the UK, Ireland, Canada, South Africa and Fiji to come and work in New Zealand.

"Together with a commitment to address teacher workloads and to raise the status of the profession, this is the first stage of a comprehensive programme to alleviate teacher shortages and build a strong and engaged workforce," Hipkins said.

A survey this week found that 14% of primary schools nationally, and 20% in Auckland, will start next year at least one teacher short.

More information on the teacher supply package is available at: http://www.education.govt.nz/teacher-supply

Comments

Yet another National scheme that was promised without allocating funds to finance it. No surprise there tho as National was good at making promises and not following through, a good example being our hospital which was promised but at every election (4) was seemingly still 10 years away.