Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
TUESDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2021
(continued on Wednesday, 15 December 2021)
EDUCATION AND TRAINING AMENDMENT BILL (NO 2)
First Reading
Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence) on behalf of the Minister of Education: I present a legislative statement on the Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 2).
ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.
Hon PEENI HENARE: I move, That the Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 2) be now read a first time. I nominate the Education and Workforce Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time, I will move that the committee report the bill to the House by 2 May 2022.
In August 2020, the Government passed the Education and Training Act. This was a comprehensive legislation that brought together education legislation into a single Act. This House has already considered education amendment bills this year, including the Education and Training (Teaching Council Fees, Levies, and Costs) Amendment Bill, which was passed in November. During the debate on that bill, I said that I will be bringing further changes to the Teaching Council to the House. The bill we are debating today contains these changes, which I will return to shortly.
The bill before the House today is the next step in a programme of continuous improvement for the education sector. The bill contains both new policies and minor and technical amendments to existing provisions in the Act. The bill amends the police vetting provision in the Act. The bill amends the Act to align it more closely with the safety checking regime set out in the Children’s Act 2014. The Children’s Act requires all workers who have regular or overnight contact with children to have undergone a comprehensive safety check, which includes a police vet before beginning work. The bill requires all non-teaching and unregistered employees to have been the subject of a police vet before beginning employment, rather than the two-week period employers have to apply for a vet currently. This change is aimed at ensuring children are safe while engaging in education.
The bill streamlines the disciplinary functions of the Teaching Council by reducing the number of matters that must be referred to the disciplinary tribunal, and allowing them to be resolved more quickly by the complaints assessment committee.
A number of other minor changes have also been made to the legislative provisions relating to the Teaching Council. These changes include making it explicit that the council can prosecute breaches of registration and certification requirements, and that it can regulate teaching in all languages of instruction and not just English and Māori medium settings.
The bill better supports the wellbeing and safety of our tertiary and international students. It ensures that provisions for wellbeing and safety codes and the dispute resolution scheme for tertiary students are fit for purpose. As well, the scope of the dispute resolution scheme was broadened so that the scheme operator can consider breaches of the code alongside financial and contractual complaints.
The bill changes how the Government regulates fees charged by tertiary education providers for student services such as health, sports, and recreation services. This will allow the Government to ensure these settings better respond to student needs and system changes. For example, it will enable the Government to consider future changes to better protect fair fee arrangements for tertiary students or to enhance student voice. The bill simplifies qualifications and other credentials by streamlining the way qualifications are designed and used.
Under the bill, industry will be able to establish their own national curricula through workforce development councils to be incorporated into the New Zealand Qualifications Framework. The bill also provides for micro-credentials and removes training schemes and training packages. In addition, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) will be able to publish information on any quality issues relating to providers, which will increase transparency for all students.
The bill makes two amendments relating to national student numbers (NSNs). First, the bill will allow NSNs to be used to ensure employers and students receive appropriate resourcing and support for work-based training. Currently, national student numbers cannot be used when funding is not administered through an education provider. This amendment will allow agencies to better administer these resources and to seek recovery of funding if necessary.
Secondly, the bill explicitly authorises national student numbers to be assigned to students studying in overseas jurisdictions where New Zealand has entered into an arrangement for the teaching and assessment of NCEA. Currently, these arrangements include the Cook Islands and Niue. The bill amends the mandate of the Education Review Office (ERO) to enable it to review professional learning and development accessed by schools, kura, and early learning services. Enabling ERO to review professional learning and development will improve our understanding of its quality and impact in individual places of learning and at a system level.
The bill also makes a number of minor and technical changes to the Act. These amendments include specifying the free kindergarten associations currently recognised for collective bargaining purposes, removing the requirement for the Secretary of Education to review and approve school strategic plans, and enabling NZQA to exercise discretion about whether to cancel the registration of private training establishments in relation to immigration breaches.
In 2020, the Act introduced new provisions that enabled network management for licenced early childhood services. The network management provisions have a delayed commencement and will come into effect on 1 August 2022. Network management approvals will examine the need for an early childhood service and the suitability of the applicant.
I have released a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that amends the network management provisions. The changes set out in the SOP create a more sustainable, higher quality and more diverse network of early learning services. New national and regional statements would be introduced for early learning network management, which will include priorities for early learning provision following input from the early learning sector and Māori. Providers will have access to information on supply and forecast growth, demand, and need. The amendments will further improve the quality of services by introducing new requirements around demonstrating capability and strengthening the fit and proper test. The changes will protect children and create a more learner- and whānau-centred early learning network. I have referred the SOP to the Education and Workforce Committee so it can be considered at the same time as the bill. With great excitement, I commend this bill to the House.
