12. Hon JOHN BOSCAWEN (Leader—ACT) Link to this
to the Minister of Education
How many complaints about teacher incompetence, if any, have been received by the Teachers Council since she took office?
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) Link to this
Hon John Boscawen Link to this
Does it surprise the Minister that of these complaints only four resulted in teachers being deregistered for incompetence, and does the Minister therefore have confidence that the remaining 28,000-odd teachers are all competent and meet the standards that parents would expect of them?
It does not surprise me about the number four because I was advised of that before I came to the House. I can advise the member that the Minister of Education is aware is that the Teachers Council has a number of avenues in order to support those teachers who are found to be wanting, and that is certainly supported by the $90 million of professional development support that the Government provides. We know that it is a very important responsibility for the Government to ensure that. It is one of the reasons why the Minister of Education has put 1,600 extra teachers in front of classrooms over the last 2½ years.
Hon John Boscawen Link to this
If all but four of New Zealand’s 28,000-odd teachers are fully competent, why is it that 20 percent of students are still leaving secondary school with no formal qualifications, given that it is apparently not the incompetence of teachers that is at fault?
The number four relates to those who were considered by the Teachers Council. The Teachers Council has not made a ruling on the competence of the remaining teacher workforce. The reason why 1 in 5 New Zealand children are leaving school unable to read and write sufficiently is related to the poor state of the education system that this Government inherited. That is why the Minister of Education is working assiduously to have national standards put across New Zealand schools, and it is great—
Mr SPEAKER
Hon Trevor Mallard Link to this
Should not the Minister, when he is criticising your work, address you?
Hon John Boscawen Link to this
Does the Minister know of any other profession or industry where the level of incompetence is 0.0014 percent; if not, is it not really that the public school system protects incompetent teachers and fails to reward good teachers, at the expense of parents and students?
The numbers that we are talking about relate to decisions made by the Teachers Council. They are not a measure of competence of the 28,000 or so individual teachers across the country. I can assure the member that the Minister of Education is putting a huge amount of public resource—$90 million a year—into professional development to support and improve the teacher workforce, and on top of that, the Minister of Education has put 1,600 extra teachers in front of classrooms during her time in education so far.