When the government announced its charter schools policy last month, one of the key points was the use of unregistered, untrained staff. Now it turns out that that decision was against strong advice from the Ministry of Education:
The Ministry of Education released official documents yesterday that recommended all teachers be registered in the schools to give the students the greatest learning opportunities.This is the bureaucratic equivalent of saying "this idea is a stinking pile of shit", and a competent Minister of Education would take it seriously. Hekia Parata didn't, and instead allowed the ACT vision of unqualified staff - which would somehow assure higher quality teaching - in order to keep her coalition partner happy. That's her prerogative as an elected representative - but if she wants to stay as an elected representative, she should probably start making better decisions.[...]
Before the announcement was made, the Education Ministry's documents warned the overall potential for a negative impact on students' education from teachers who did not meet the minimum standards for the profession was high.
"Teacher registration is one the most influential levers in raising teacher quality across the profession in both state and private schools. Allowing charter schools to stand outside this work will significantly damage the credibility of the Crown."