The plan to train – and retain – more teachers in New Zealand

A $53m budget boost will see 1,500 new teachers recruited over the next four years.

Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Monday, May 27, produced in partnership with Blind Low Vision NZ.

In today’s edition: Consultants called in to look at Wellington mega tunnel, the biggest night in NZ journalism, and why government MPs need to “look a bit less dodgy”. But first: the budget announcements keep coming, and education appears to be the big winner.

Education minister Erica Stanford (Image: RNZ)

Another budget entree

We’ve finally made it to budget week, and the government’s first major challenge since the election. It may feel, as a few readers have emailed me to say, as though many of the budget’s secrets have already been released in the lead-up to May 30. It’s not unusual to have a number of pre-budget announcements, though there have been quite a few this year. As RNZ’s Giles Dexter explained, governments like to make a few early announcements in order to ensure the biggest few get their fair share of coverage (and, such as in the case of the first home grant decision, to make sure the bad press doesn’t dominate on budget day). But of the announcements made already, it would appear education is set to be a major winner in Budget 2024. Yesterday, more funding was unveiled.

1,200 new (paid) placements

Education minister Erica Stanford joined Jack Tame on Q+A yesterday morning where she revealed $53 million would be spent over the next four years to recruit and train 1,500 new teachers – or just under 400 every year. That money will fund 1,200 places for aspiring teachers to train in the classroom, along with a $20,000 package per placement to cover expenses and a tuition fees contribution. Writing for The Spinoff earlier this month, Shanti Mathias looked at the issue of unpaid work placements, noting that teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers and counsellors are all expected to complete work placements without pay as part of study. One concern raised by the union representing many of our teachers, NZEI, was that the $20,000 package was only available to those doing in-school programmes, reported RNZ. While they welcomed the move, the union’s president Mark Potter said it should “be extended to everyone training, regardless of whether their pathway is in-school or university”. Labour’s education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said the number of new teachers the government expected to recruit wasn’t enough, noting her government added more than 1,300 teachers in just over 12 months. On Morning Report today, Tinetti said the addition of a stipend could encourage students to move away from university training, which may lead to a drop-off in new enrolments for that pathway.

Ensuring we have enough teachers

If you Google “Australia teaching”, the first four links are sponsored articles enticing New Zealand teachers across the ditch for a job. In June last year, The Spinoff’s Shanti Mathias also reported on the hundreds of millions being spent by Australia to try and persuade our teachers to move. According to Mathias, the latest figures showed there were broadly enough teachers across the country, but there were some shortages for specialist subjects and in secondary schools. An RNZ report from December 2022 discussed a projected shortfall of teachers in 2025. Overseas teachers are key to ensuring we can fill vacancies. This new budget funding includes an extension to the overseas relocation grant, helping 300 more teachers move to New Zealand. There is also funding for 425 overseas finders fees packages for schools to assist with the costs of recruiting overseas teachers. RNZ’s John Gerritsen reported in 2022 that schemes like this had proven successful in luring new teachers to Aotearoa. In announcing this new budget boost, Stanford said recent estimates showed there could be a deficit of 680 secondary school teachers in three years. Asked (several times) by Tame on Q+A whether there would be a teacher shortage at the end of this parliamentary term, Stanford wouldn’t specifically say. But, she said, “my expectation is by the end of this term that we will not have what we’re seeing at the moment”. Jaime Lyth at the Herald reported last week on the recent uptick in winter illnesses and how that was having an impact on teacher numbers. On Q+A, Stanford acknowledged schools were struggling through, but believed action taken by her government would make an impact. 

Education a key focus of Budget 2024

There have already been a handful of funding announcements in the education space this year, suggesting it’s a core focus for the government heading into the budget. In a pre-budget speech earlier in the month, prime minister Christopher Luxon said his government was making “big commitments” on the frontline of education and said $429m in savings had been found through reprioritisations. “Those education savings are dwarfed by the total increase in funding we are making to education in this year’s budget,” he said. We’ve covered off most of these in The Bulletin in recent weeks, such as the return of charter schools and a refreshed school in lunches scheme. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has proposed to cut a total of 755 positions, of which 316 are currently vacant. Writing for The Spinoff last week, high school teacher Alastair Crawford argued that there was a silver lining to these cuts – quality teachers back on the front line. 

Join The Spinoff Welly 500

Last August, The Spinoff hired Joel MacManus as its first-ever Wellington editor.His agenda-setting editorial project on the future of housing in the city, the War for Wellington, was funded entirely by existing Spinoff members and supported by many new donors.

To sustain and grow our work in Wellington, we now need to ask Wellingtonians for help. The Spinoff is looking for 500 people to donate $50 or more and join a new community of supporters, The Spinoff Welly 500. Find out more or join today.

‘Hypocritical’: Consultant looking at Wellington mega-tunnel proposal

A contractor and a consultant are being paid to investigate building a mega tunnel underneath Wellington, the Herald’s Georgina Campbell has reported. That’s despite National in opposition criticising Labour’s consultancy spend, and comes as job cuts are under way at Waka Kotahi. A spokesperson for the transport agency said the two workers are part of a small team looking at the proposal, and were providing “specialist technical advice on geotechnical and cost estimation matters”. But Labour’s transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said it was “hypocritical” for the government to order job cuts and then pay for consultants. The Spinoff’s Joel MacManus “examined” the cost benefit analysis for the mega tunnel earlier in the year. Meanwhile, Jason Walls at Newstalk ZB has today reported on the “ghost offices” left unfilled following the demise of the Productivity Commission, and how much that’s costing the taxpayer.

Doubt over cathedral rebuild

On the front page of The Press this morning, revelations that millions of ratepayer funds promised for the restoration of the Christ Church Cathedral could be held onto by the council. Tina Law has the details, reporting the council introduced a 10-year ratepayer levy in 2018 to help fund a $10m grant toward rebuilding the cathedral. But with the potential for a cost blowout, there is now doubt over whether the reconstruction will ever happen. A report in April said that unless a funding gap could be filled by the end of August, the building would be mothballed indefinitely, prompting questions about what will happen to the money raised via the public levy.

The Spinoff wins at Voyager Media Awards

It was the biggest night of the year for journalism on Friday with the annual Voyager Media Awards and I just wanted to shout-out a few of my colleagues. The Spinoff picked up two awards at the ceremony: Gabi Lardies won junior feature writer of the year and Toby Morris won cartoonist/animator of the year. Our formidable editor Madeleine Chapman scored runner-up for best columnist, opinion or critique. Meanwhile, Stuff picked up the coveted digital news provider of the year award and TVNZ’s Jack Tame was named political journalist of the year. The full list of winners can be found here.

Click and Collect

• A reflective essay/feature from The Spinoff’s editor Madeleine Chapman that’s well worth your time this morning: What it takes to be an Olympian and why you don’t have it.

• We talked a bit in Friday’s Bulletin about the perception issues facing the government at the moment. In the Sunday Star Times yesterday, Andrea Vance wrote about why government MPs need to “look a bit less dodgy”.

• The Samoan community is rallying to get more support for the Restoring Citizenship Removed by Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 bill. The proposed legislation seeks to right the wrongs of a Muldoon era law that cancelled the citizenships of people legally entitled to it, as Graeme Edgeler explained in this 2017 piece for The Spinoff.

• I watched the new Lady Gaga concert film on ThreeNow yesterday (obviously, it’s a must watch) then I enjoyed this Vulture piece totalling up how many times she demanded the crowd put their hands up. Spoiler: it’s a lot.

• A police investigation is under way after a Destiny Church youth group leader was stood down over allegations of sexual abuse, reports the Herald.

• US bird flu outbreak, not Australian cases, main concern for NZ (paywalled).

• The Fold: A tumultuous year in the life of Shit You Should Care About.

Right now on The Spinoff

Rachel Judkins looks at what New Zealand might have looked like today if we’d legalised weed in 2020. For his latest Windbag column, Joel MacManus asks: Could Ray Chung really be the mayor of Wellington? Alex Casey and Tara Ward break down the chaotic first episode of Married at First Sight NZ, while Casey also caught up with the most successful couple from the show: Brett and Angel. For My Life in TV, Sara Wiseman reveals the moment she nearly quit acting. Troy Kingi curates his dream weekend soundtrack for our new weekly interview series. And Hannah Patterson reflects on a childhood split across Hong Kong and Auckland for the Sunday Essay.

That’s it for this morning, thanks for reading. I’ll catch you back tomorrow.

Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz.

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