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Current Policy Requirement

By 2012 the Government indicated a commitment to ensuring 80% of staff in teacher-led ECE services would hold a qualification recognised by the NZ Teachers' Council for the purposes of working in an early childhood service.  This is yet to be confirmed through a change in regulations.

Definition

A ‘registered teacher’ is a holder of a current practising certificate that has been issued by the New Zealand Teachers' Council.  All teachers must meet the same criteria set out by the Teachers' Council to be issued with a practising certificate, to have it renewed every three years, and not to have it taken away from them.

The Ministry of Education has a wider definition of a registered teacher.  The Ministry accepts provisionally registered teachers (those who are qualified and have started the process of becoming registered) and teachers 'subject to confirmation' with the Teachers' Council as counting toward the number of registered teachers a service has and for calculating the rate of public funding a service gets according to its percentage of registered teachers.

To be a registered teacher the steps are:

1.  Meet the criteria for enrolment in a recognised early childhood training course.

2. Complete the training course to gain a recognised early childhood or primary teaching qualification to Level Seven.  This usually takes 3 years full-time study or 4 years part-time although some institutions are moving to offer only 4 year qualifications or 1 year post-graduate study (you must already hold a degree).

3.  Once the paper qualification has been gained its not time for celebration.  One is usually only paid a qualified teacher rate if one signs up with the NZ Teachers' Council for provisional registration.

4.  The process of becoming registered then takes 2 years.  A qualified teacher is required to undergo supervision from a registered teacher during this time and must meet a set of criteria for all teachers that the NZ Teachers Council has laid out. Only teachers in regular ongoing employment of a minimum of 10 week blocks are considered for registration. 

5. Once registered the registration lasts for up to 5 years after the expiry of the practicing certificate.  So people who get a teaching job overseas and then return to NZ wanting to teach here or who have had a break from teaching - for example to have their own children or pursue further qualifications may find themselves having to go through the registration process again.

Click on here to read the NZ Teachers' Council criteria for teacher registration.

Costs

The processing fee payable to the NZ Teachers' Council for provisional and full registration is around $300.00.  Then it costs around $220 for the three yearly practicing certificate renewal.

To be considered for full registration a provisionally registered teacher must undergo an induction programme, being supervised by a mentor teacher(s) during the two year period.  A provisionally registered teacher may be employed by a service who has a registered teacher who is willing and able to provide this service for free.  Otherwise the provisionally registered teacher will pay the fee charged by a professional mentor who visits centres and mentors a number of teachers, or the fee to enrol in an induction programme and undergo further study at a Tertiary Institution.

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