It is true that qualified teachers in services that already meet the government target of 80% registered teachers will not be eligible for the Support Grant for provisionally registered teachers from 1 July 2011.

For further information go to a cabinet paper "review of ECE teacher supply initiatives" (click here to read) and a second paper "achieving Government Priorities in ECE" (click here to read) which pushes out the orginal date of 1 February to 1 July 2011 when the PRTSG will be targeted to those services not meeting the 80% teacher target.

The Ministry of Education are currently working out the detail to operationalise the change and will likely communicate this information to services in early 2011.

There are likely to be tighter rules and greater accountability for services around how the grant is spent to make sure that it is actually used to support the provisionally registered teacher's professional learning and practices.

In regards to financial assistance to support staff to become qualified, what used to be called the "Incentive Grant" and is now called the "ECE Service Teacher Edn Grant" is also targeted to services with less than 80% registered teachers.  The grant amount was increased this year from $2,094 to $3,375 to help services with the costs of supporting a staff member in training.

For further information click here