New Zealand celebrates World Teachers' Day
Thursday 25 October 2007, 5:30PM
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New Zealand joins more than 100 countries tomorrow to celebrate the annual World Teachers' Day and recognise the professionalism, skills and experience of our teachers.
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New Zealand joins more than 100 countries tomorrow to celebrate the annual World Teachers' Day and recognise the professionalism, skills and experience of our teachers.
"We have a highly effective teaching workforce that make a vital contribution to improving achievement in New Zealand's world-class education system," Acting Education Minister Parekura Horomia says.
"On World Teachers' Day I want to thank teachers for the hard work, dedication, commitment and professionalism they bring to this hugely important job. Teachers have the power to change the lives of children and young people, and are key to developing life-long learners.
"New Zealand has one of the highest performing education systems in the OECD, as evidenced by the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) results. New Zealand's 15 year-olds consistently outperform the majority of their OECD counterparts in reading, maths and science."
The theme for this year's celebrations is 'Planning for an Effective Workforce'. Since 2000 the Labour-led government has provided approximately 5000 extra full-time teacher equivalents (FTTEs) over and above those required for roll growth.
"New Zealand has a wide range of initiatives in place to further increase the supply of experienced, quality teachers, including free retraining courses for teachers returning to teaching, increased advertising in New Zealand and overseas, and TeachNZ Scholarships targeted at priority areas for teacher supply of New Zealand-trained teachers."
To mark World Teachers' Day, the Teachers Council is hosting a one-day conference 'Excelling in Teaching'. Its theme is 'Teaching is a Learning Profession'. Keynote speakers will present on overseas and New Zealand professional development, mentor training, and recent research on teacher induction.