The Government has allocated $44 million to recruit 1000 new teachers and to support students whose learning has been disrupted by Covid.
Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said $24 million would go towards recruiting close to 1000 additional teachers, expected to include 700 international and 300 domestic teachers.
Meanwhile, $20m will go towards additional teaching and tutoring services for students after more than two years of Covid disruptions, including examination preparation, workshops and one-on-one mentoring.
Tinetti said ensuring Aotearoa had more teachers was vital. The long-term goal was to improve the supply of domestic teachers, however, the quickest way to get experienced teachers into schools was by recruiting teachers trained overseas.
"Overseas trained teachers have always been a valued part of the workforce; they bring diversity and rich experience to our communities."
Tinetti said the Government would increase the number of teachers who could train while they were placed in schools, putting more incentives in place to get beginning and returning teachers into hard-to-staff roles and expanding its "career changer" scholarship.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said young people had missed crucial time in the classroom in the past two and a half years and the impact needed to be addressed head-on.
Of the $20m allocated to supporting students, $2m would go towards support programmes designed specifically for Māori and Pacific students and $17.4m to schools where greater proportions of students faced socio-economic challenges.
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