Teachers' Pay/Issues

Click here to return to the education summary.                       Click here to return to the policy homepage.

• Ensure the best teachers are the highest-paid, and that leaders of good schools are free to go on to build great schools. (more here)

• Work with teacher unions to identify real changes that will make teaching a more attractive career choice and will attract mature teachers back into the profession.
• Improve pay, job security, and provide professional development for teachers and aides.
• Support pay parity for early childhood, primary and secondary educators, based on qualifications and responsibility.
• Provide funding to increase the number of early childhood services' staff so that teacher to child ratios can be met.
• Provide incentives such as school housing to enable teachers to work and develop their careers in rural/remote communities.
• Provide professional development programmes to teachers so that they are able to teach a diverse population of learners.
• After six years of service, teachers, including early childhood education teachers, will be entitled to a sabbatical leave for one year at 80% of their salary.
• Develop initiatives that relieve the administrative workload of teachers. (more here)

• Labour will prioritise investment in professional development and learning, bearing in mind financial constraints. We will not cut funding for professional development and learning. As our economic situation improves, Labour will restore funding for professional development and learning.
• Labour will maintain the high standards required of New Zealand‟s early education professionals and work towards the goal of 100% fully qualified staff in all ECE centres.
• Labour will support the New Zealand Teachers‟ Council to enhance the quality of initial teacher education and on-going professional development. This includes evaluating the findings of the Teachers‟ Council‟s Review of Initial Teacher Education.
• Labour will redirect the professional development funding provided to primary schools to implement National Standards. We will allow schools to use this money for professional development and learning that is focused on implementing the NZ Curriculum. (more here)

• Hold a formal review of Tomorrow’s Schools to evaluate its successes and failures and recommend changes.
• Progressively shift education to a “high trust” model with greater respect for teacher professionalism.
• Reduce teacher workloads across all schools by increasing the time for teaching and learning and decreasing the amount of assessment.
• Develop a plan to reduce class sizes to increase the quality of teaching and learning.
• Extend successful teacher training initiatives which focus on the importance of building strong teacher/student relationships as a key to educational success for Māori, Pasifika and children with special needs.
• Widen the criteria for Teach NZ scholarships to include more Maori. (more here)

• Embed nationwide implementation of Tātaiako: (cultural competence framework) by 2015.
• We will promote a three year recruitment drive for 200 Māori to enter into the teaching profession, especially those who are competent in te reo Māori. This will involve a bonding scheme where a scholarship will be paid in return for years of service.
• We will establish a multi-site Māori language teacher training centre and a centre for Māori educational excellence in teaching and leadership. (more here)

Not set out on their website.

• Encourage more men to join the teaching profession at all levels.
• Ensure that entry requirements to teacher education are rigorous.
• Ensure that student teachers develop both the competencies and the disposition to work with children and young people and those non-performing student teachers are identified and if necessary failed.
• Clarify the protocols available to Principals for removing an incompetent teacher.
• Require schools to explain to parents how progress is measured, how often and for what purpose.
• Increase the amount of time student teachers spend in school-based placements.
• Focus on improving working conditions that contribute to the decision teachers make to leave the profession like workload and student behaviour.
• Support a review of teacher pay rates so that they are more internationally competitive.
• Strengthen current professional development priorities specifically in assessment practice, classroom management, subject expertise, meeting the needs of disabled students and the ongoing roll out of Te Kötahitanga.
• Ensure that support for newly qualified teachers across all sectors is consistent and of a high standard.
• Support the inclusion of teacher trainees in a bonding scheme to reduce student loan debt for those who are qualified in fields facing shortages, in return for a continuous period of work in New Zealand after graduation.
• Support the call from Principals for the Teachers Council to deal with disciplinary matters in a more transparent manner. (more here)