Education Minister Erica Stanford says the government is spending $53 million to cover teachers' registration and practising certificate fees because it values their work.
Speaking at Boulcott School in Hutt Valley today, Stanford said the pre-Budget announcement also realised a National Party commitment from the 2023 election campaign.
She said from 1 July, teachers would save up to $550 when applying for registration or renewing their practising certificate.
About 115,000 early childhood and school teachers would benefit from the policy over the next three years, Stanford said.
"It was a pre-election promise that the National Party made about valuing teachers, and over the last 18 months we've asked a huge amount of teachers... So it was important to acknowledge that hard work and how much we value the profession," she said.
Stanford would not say whether the initiative would be funded with repurposed education spending or with a new allocation to the education budget.
"It's no secret that I have been combing through 26,000 lines of spend in the education budget to make sure that we are investing in things that work and investing in our frontline and investing in our kids and investing in our amazing teachers and that means stopping doing some things and I'll have more to say about that in the next month," she said.
Chris Bishop and Erica Stanford at Boulcott School in Lower Hutt. Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen
However, the PPTA and the primary teachers' union the Educational Institute said the current school teacher collective agreements included payments that covered Teaching Council fees - payments that would have been up for renegotiation in this year's collective agreement talks.
Post Primary Teachers Association president Chris Abercrombie said the union wholeheartedly welcomed the government's decision.
"Paying teachers' Teaching Council fees lets teachers know their professional expertise is valued and provides an incentive to stay in the job," he said.
Boulcott School principal Rachael Sole said it was great news for her staff.
"It's an expense that they've had to pay in the past, a few hundred dollars, and it's better in their pockets than going elsewhere. We're not the highest-paid profession so having this little bonus is great," she said.
Sole said the fees had increased in recent years with another coming this year.
"A lot of the staff here were really pleased. You could hear and see the reaction."
Teacher Brigit Scahill said she was due renew her practising certificate in 18 months and the decision was a positive first step.
"We've done a lot of work recently with the new government's package around upskilling and it's just really nice to feel valued," she said.
The Teaching Council website said teachers paid $464.37 to renew their practising certificate for three years and $512.37 to move from a provisional to full practising certificate.
It had proposed increasing the charges to $501.74 and $553.58 respectively.
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