Principal says scheme creates great teachers

IN SUPPORT: Northland College principal Jim Luders.

A Northland principal says a fast-track training scheme found to be breaking employment laws has provided his school with "outstanding" teachers.

Jim Luders, of Northland College in Kaikohe, is calling for the Teach First debacle to be resolved before the new school year begins so schools and teachers are not left in limbo.

Teach First puts high-achieving university graduates into an eight-week intensive training programme then bonds them for two years to a low-decile school. But the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has ruled the scheme is illegal because it puts trainee teachers into jobs without the positions being advertised.

Those already in the scheme aren't affected but the ERA ruling casts doubt on the next batch of Teach First appointments due to start in 2016. The case was taken to the ERA by the Post-Primary Teachers Association (PPTA), the union representing secondary school teachers.

Mr Luders said Northland College had so far had three Teach First trainees - one had finished her two-year stint, two more were halfway though - and found them to be "outstanding".

"They've really won the respect of the tamariki (children)," he said.

Another had been due to start in February but had to pull out for personal reasons. When the scheme started he was sceptical, in part because it had been imported from the UK, but he was now a firm backer.

"This needs to be sorted out quickly so these teachers can be in classrooms at the beginning of next year," he said.

Mr Luders agreed the scheme was technically a breach of the State Services Act, something which should have been addressed long ago. He was also critical of the timing of the ERA ruling which comes just before the end of the fourth term, the most disruptive time possible. While the PPTA had long raised concerns about the scheme's legality it had only recently upped its campaign.

The PPTA says it took the case to the ERA only after repeated efforts to work with the Ministry of Education and Teach First weren't taken seriously.

Instead they had "taken a punt" and failed to consider what would happen if the ERA sided with the union, PPTA president Angela Roberts said.

The issue was not the Teach First programme itself but teachers' collective agreement and employment law, she said.

The ministry is considering the ERA decision and seeking further advice before deciding its next steps. Teach First is run by Auckland University and the Teach First NZ Trust. Its aims include recruiting top graduates to bring knowledge, energy and leadership into the classroom, and to build a network of teachers committed to addressing educational inequality.