Act proposes fund to reward excellent teachers

Leader David Seymour has announced "good teacher grant" which bulk fund schools for teacher salaries at a rate of $93,000 a teacher. Photo / Audrey Young

Act is proposing to overhaul the way teachers are paid so that good teachers can be paid more and bad teachers less.

Leader David Seymour has announced "good teacher grant" which bulk fund schools for teacher salaries at a rate of $93,000 a teacher.

Schools opted into it would decide which teacher was paid what.

The scheme would cost $975 million.

Seymour announced the policy the party's campaign launch in Ellerslie today.

He said that would give schools the ability to pay good teachers near $120,000.

"Top graduates dont want to start at around $50,000 and wait in line for a pay rise up to a maximum of $78,000.

"After that there is almost nowhere to go. Many have to go into management away from the students that need them most."

Education union NZEI Te Riu Roa president Lynda Stuart said the policy was "staggeringly out of touch" with what teachers say matters to them. She said teachers wanted a career framework rather than singling out a few for higher pay.

"This is straight out of Act's playbook - undermine public education, undermine teachers, and undermine unions.

"However, it is good to see ACT acknowledging that teachers need to be paid more. But with teacher workload growing, along with a teacher shortage, all teachers need a pay rise, not just some."

Seymour is under secretary of education and his Party established charter schools as a part of Act's confidence and supply agreement with National for the past nine years.

The campaign launch was attended by about 150 people including former Auckland mayoral candidate John Palino.

He said the campaign slogan "Own Your Future," which also happened to be the title of Seymour's recently launched book.

Seymour is the MP for Epsom, and with National encouraging its supporters to give him their electorate vote, he is also the certain to keep the seat, meaning Act does not need to reach the 5 per cent threshold before its Party Votes count.

Seymour talked about one of his own teachers, Gordon Harries, or Mr H as he was known to Room Six of Maanu Primary School in Whangarei.

"The good news is that New Zealand has some of the best teachers in the world. The bad news is that we are doing a terrible job of keeping them and training them more."