Ele Ludemann: Union’s politics showing

What’s better, no teacher or a recently retired, though now deregistered one?

. . .Two Otago principals have welcomed the government’s short-term fix to a relief teacher shortage despite the teachers union’s concerns.

PPTA Te Wehengarua president Chris Abercrombie said the “ad hoc” response from Minister of Education Erica Stanford meant thousands of young people would not be taught by trained and qualified subject-specialist teachers. . .

Kerre Woodham: Who wants to be a teacher? Not many of us apparently

Who'd be a teacher? Not many of us, apparently - the Teaching Council of New Zealand says half as many Kiwis are signing up to become teachers than there were in 2010, and the number of students graduating as teachers has dropped by more than a third. The Deputy Chief Executive Clive Jones said if you look at the number of domestic students enrolling in teacher training programmes for the first time, that's dropped by 51% between 2010 and 2023. We're simply not producing enough teachers to replenish the teaching workforce. He said teaching was not the attractive career prospect it once was. Those who'd chosen it felt undermined, undervalued and underpaid.

Michael Johnston: How to make a problem worse by spending money

Spending money does not, on its own, fix problems. It matters how that money is spent.

Perhaps you think that is obvious. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem so obvious to the government.

Last weekend, the Prime Minister announced an additional $189 million for early childhood education (ECE). The money will be spent on subsidies for families.