Source: Radio New Zealand
The review said the council should use its rich data about teachers to identify patterns and help tackle negative trends and risks. RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The Teaching Council needs to focus more on children’s safety and less on being liked by teachers, according to an independent review.
The review of the teacher registration body has called for significant transformation and more emphasis on its role as a regulator.
It has been published while the council’s chief executive Lesley Hoskin is on leave during a Public Service Commission review of the council’s procurement and conflict of interest practices, and amid widespread opposition to a government overhaul of the council.
The document – provided to RNZ by the council – said the council’s current statutory purpose was “to ensure safe and high-quality leadership, teaching, and learning in early childhood, primary, and secondary education through raising the status of the profession”.
It said the government was moving to cut the reference to raising the status of teaching and the review was aimed at establishing future opportunities in light of wider education reforms.
The report said those opportunities included shifting the council’s mindset “from the current focus on promoting respect for the profession and being liked by the profession to a prevention and stewardship mindset, focussed on improving child safety and the quality of teaching, and growing public trust and confidence in the profession”.
“The current focus on the mana of teachers and the profession must be properly balanced with the council’s’ statutory responsibilities to protect children from the sorts of competency and conduct breaches that create lifelong harm and trauma,” the report said.
“The council needs to lead the education sector to improve performance in preventing incompetence or misconduct while simultaneously shifting its focus from managing the consequences of misconduct to addressing the causes.”
Education Minister Erica Stanford told the Education and Workforce Select Committee on Wednesday the review vindicated the government’s moves to overhaul the council and take greater control over teacher education.
The review said the council appeared to have the culture of an advocacy body rather than of a regulatory or membership body.
“While there may be times when the council advocates for the profession, these must be balanced with its other roles and functions,” the report said.
“In spite of the statutory requirement to have regard to the policy of the government of the day, the agency does not appear to see itself as part of the wider state sector, within which the teaching profession sits.”
The review said the council should use its rich data about teachers to identify patterns and help tackle negative trends and risks.
“For example, the council’s registration teams can see the current trend towards increasing numbers of foreign trained teachers, which if extrapolated, will see up to 30 percent of the workforce foreign trained by 2035. They might also see patterns about where in the system probationary teachers are not reaching the standards required for permanent registration, or where leaders may appear to be ‘tick boxing’ certification applications.”
The report expressed concern that the council had recently lost qualified teachers and expert investigators from its staff.
It said the council had a strongly mission-driven and committed culture, but there were signs of dominant cliques that might “freeze out” those who did not agree with it.
“The executive has sometimes appeared, to some interviewees, to prioritise pliability over relevant experience and technical expertise,” it said.
The report warned that the level of change required at the council was significant and would need careful planning and management.
Last year the council’s acting chief executive [. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/581901/teaching-council-interim-ceo-resigns-from-board-for-avoidance-of-doubt-chair-says resigned his seat] on the council’s governing board after RNZ inquiries into the legality of the dual roles
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
