Teachers Apparently Begged for This
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
by ELV
(A helpful summary of 35 minutes at the Education and Workforce Committee so you didn’t have to)
For those who couldn’t sit through the full 35 minutes of our Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, appearing before the Education and Workforce Committee, I’ve done the public service of watching it for you.
You’re welcome.
And good news: if you made a submission opposing the Bill — or felt a flicker of concern about ministerial overreach — rest assured. The Minister is here to put your anxious little mind at ease.
Apparently, you asked for this.
Chapter 1: The Sector Begged Her to Take Over the Teaching Council
We begin with the central claim: teachers have asked her to “grip this up.”
Yes. Grip. This. Up.
According to the Minister, the sector is in despair over initial teacher education. She cited ERO data suggesting 60% of new teachers feel underprepared. The well-worn maths preparedness statistic made a cameo. OECD comparisons were dusted off. The usual suspects.
The conclusion? The only available lever — the only lever — is to bring the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand closer to the Ministry.
Because when teachers cry out for help, what they obviously mean is:
“Please centralise more authority.”
Apparently, principals everywhere have been knocking down her door whispering, “Minister, if only you could just grip this up.”
Curiously, many of us must have missed that meeting.
Chapter 2: Regulatory Health Checks (and Other Phrases)
We moved next to legislative architecture.
There was talk of “healthy tension.” Of separating monitoring from approval functions. Of regulatory health settings. Of standards sitting in different places. Of carefully balancing levers.
At one point, she described how she has been “separating out” functions across the system.
It sounded important.
It also sounded suspiciously like rearranging the furniture and calling it structural reform.
And somehow — naturally, seamlessly, inevitably — this means teacher standards should sit inside the Ministry.
Because nothing says professional independence like reporting to the Minister.
But again — this is what teachers asked for. Apparently. With even more ‘gripping things up’.
Chapter 3: The Debbie Francis Report — Now Featuring as Exhibit A
The Debbie Francis report was deployed as justification.
We were told the Teaching Council had been too focused on being liked by teachers. Too concerned with raising the mana of the profession. Not sufficiently focused on protecting children.
That’s a serious framing.
It positions reform not as political preference — but as moral necessity.
The implication? If you question this Bill, you are implicitly siding against child protection.
Efficient rhetoric.
Yet it is worth noting that regulatory reform can be debated without reducing it to a binary of “for children” versus “for teachers.”
Chapter 4: Grip This Up (Again)
If there was a phrase of the day, it was “grip this up.”
Repeated. Emphasised. Performed with clenched fists.
Grip this up means to take firm hold. To seize control.
Which, in fairness, may be the most honest phrasing of the afternoon.
Chapter 5: The Curriculum Is Here to Stay (But Also We’re Writing It)
We were assured the curriculum reforms are carefully sequenced. World-leading.
Knowledge-rich. Non-disruptive.
No new powers. Business as usual.
There was, however, a small linguistic slip: “When we write — or the Ministry writes…”
A reminder that authorship matters.
Final Notes from the Hearing
According to the Minister:
Those opposing the Bill are largely those aligned with the previous government.
The happy experts didn’t complain.
The unhappy ones are predictable.
And child protection demands urgent action.
And so the solution — naturally — is consolidation of regulatory authority closer to the executive arm of government.
Which teachers requested.
Enthusiastically.
Repeatedly.
(We must have been busy that day too.)
What This Really Comes Down To
The Bill is framed as:
Raising standards
Increasing accountability
Protecting children
Improving teacher training
Those are aims few would dispute.
The question is not whether improvement is needed.
The question is whether centralising control is the only way to achieve it (a question that was asked twice but never answered) — and whether dissenting voices can be dismissed as partisan simply because they disagree.
If you’d like to watch the full meeting yourself, here it is:
Bring snacks.
And maybe a tally sheet for how many times “grip this up” appears.
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