15 Oct 2018

Hipkins responds to criticism of overseas teacher drive

From Morning Report, 7:09 am on 15 October 2018

The government's plan to recruit hundreds of overseas teachers in New Zealand classrooms by the beginning of the next school year has been dismissed as a nonsense by some teachers. The government has increased its 2019 target for recruiting overseas teachers from 400 to 900. Immigration New Zealand has emailed 6000 overseas teachers who had registered an interest in working here. It's also trying to lure back New Zealand-trained teachers as it focuses on trying to get the 850 teachers it says it needs for next year. Michael Harvey is a secondary school science teacher who now teaches in Malaysia. He says things would need to change for him to come back. Education Minister Chris Hipkins tells Susie Ferguson the government will be pulling out all the stops to recruit enough teachers.