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More than a thousand student teachers in New Zealand will graduate this year without having completed classroom practice requirements amid the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Aotearoa New Zealand Teaching Council said that Covid-19 had forced it to think creatively, because many teacher students had not been able to complete the required number of practical hours due to seven weeks of lockdown; and more in Auckland.
As a result, the council has lowered the practical requirements for new teachers by a quarter, after consulting with the education minister.
The council’s executive director, Lesley Hoskin, said the impact of the lockdown was “unfair” on the teachers-in-training, but she was confident they would nonetheless be ready for the classroom.
“Research has shown us the importance of effective practical experience,” Hoskin said. “So, we are looking for flexible and pragmatic options that ensure the readiness of graduates to teach, but that take into account the current unprecedented reality of schools, centers and in which be cooped up “.
Pauline Barnes, deputy executive director for professional services, said the council was also being more flexible on how hands-on experience is gained in 2020 and is now taking digital teaching into account. Barnes said young teachers had also developed strong skills in resilience and adaptability in 2020.
“This is not a lowering of standards, but rather a realistic solution to a COVID-related challenge facing student teachers,” Barnes said.
The practical course requirements range from 14 to 20 weeks, with some teachers entering classrooms after only five weeks of experience, leaving them feeling off guard. “It is very overwhelming to have [five weeks] in a classroom, ”a teacher student told RNZ.
The Education Ministry said it would offer additional support for new teachers in 2021 and work with the council on “a more structured and specialized induction.”
Despite their lack of experience, the new cohort of teachers will be welcomed into schools, amid a chronic and prolonged teacher shortage, exacerbated next year by the inability to recruit foreign teachers from countries like the UK .
The trickle of new Covid-19 cases continues in New Zealand, and on Wednesday the country recorded another death, a patient who had been in intensive care since August.
The death brings the death toll in the country to 25, although for the second day in a row no community transmission of the virus was reported, raising hopes that the Auckland outbreak may finally be contained.
This week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that coronavirus restrictions on social gatherings would remain in effect until Monday, at which point her government will begin easing them if community spread appears to be under control.
New Zealand has already beaten the virus once, in June, at one point there were no active cases of Covid-19 in the country, but a resurgence in Auckland led to a second lockdown, which is now being mitigated.
Three people remain in the hospital with the virus.
