Catherine Delahunty, in Committee, to move the following amendments:
Clause 38
In clause 38, after new section 388(1)(e) (page 58, after line 7), insert:
“(f) in respect of elections required by Schedule 22, clause 1(1)(b), all teachers that are registered with the Teachers Council and hold a current practising certificate to be eligible to vote at the elections—
Schedule 3
In Schedule 3, new Schedule 22, replace clause 1(1) (page 89, lines 5 to 6), with:
Explanatory note
Schedule 3, new schedule 22 outlines the nature of the appointment of members to the new Education Council of Aotearoa of New Zealand (EDUCANZ), which is the body that the Government proposes to introduce to take over from the Teachers Council of New Zealand.
Amongst other things, new schedule 22 would empower the Minister to appoint all members of EDUCANZ, with as few as five members being people who are registered and hold a current practising certificate under the Act. In making the appointment, the Minister must consider the “collective skills, experience, and knowledge making up the overall composition” of the Council and would only require the Minister to have regard to any candidate’s ability to discharge the duties as a member – which may or may not include “knowledge of education, experience of governance, leadership experience and skills, financial skills, and understanding of the partnership principles of the Treaty of Waitangi”.
This Supplementary Order Paper instead proposes that there be a mixed membership, with 4 appointments being made by the Minister, in accordance with the proposed criteria outlined in new schedule 22, clause 1(5) and the remaining 5 appointments being elected by registered teachers holding current practising certificates.
As a consequential amendment, it is proposed the new body be given the power to make rules relating to the election process, including the conduct of those elections, and the method and process for determining the result of any election.
The rationale for this Supplementary Order Paper is to retain roughly the current balance of elected and appointed members of the Council. The absence of elections in the Bill has been widely criticised by the teaching profession as undemocratic and putting them at a disadvantage compared with the members of other professions in New Zealand who nearly all have the right to elect some members to their registration body.