An open letter to the Honourable Erica Stanford Minister of Education

Hon Erica Stanford
Minister of Education
Private Bag 18888
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6160

Dear Minister,

We are writing in support of the sentiments expressed by the Professional Learning Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (PLANZ) in their recent letter to you. PLANZ is a professional body committed to advancing educational standards in our schools and kura.

Our prime concern is that you are setting up the NZ Professional Learning and Development  (PLD) sector to fail. 

The ongoing uncertainty of the PLD systems is decimating this specialised PLD sector in NZ. It has led to the demise of a number of highly experienced PLD providers (businesses) and this in turn has resulted in the loss of educational facilitators with exceptional knowledge, adaptive expertise and documented success in implementing PLD within schools and their communities to raise student achievement. 

Over the last 10 years there have been no mechanisms for fast forwarding culturally responsive approaches that are efficient and effective in getting results by ‘working smarter, not harder’ with interwoven pedagogies. Visit: Let's make sure the best stuff works for everyone… The current PLD climate is unsustainable for us as a business, therefore the extremely valuable PLD provided by RTeach Institute is likely to be lost – even though the Reciprocal Teaching - RT3T™ approach has proven success over 20+ years in student achievement and whole school change towards inclusion, building energetic engagement in learning, wellness, well-being, efficient critical thinking and confident leadership skills. Visit: Reciprocal Teaching | Education Counts. The reality of the current PLD climate means we have been unable to meet the rapidly growing demand from schools, have already placed our facilitators on reduced hours, and are facing the closure of our business.

Should this uncertainty and decimation of the PLD sector continue, where will you find the providers and facilitators capable of delivering the PLD required to ensure teachers and leaders are well-equipped to meet the Government’s achievement targets for 2030 and 2033?

To prevent this loss of expertise and in order to develop a business model that would allow us to survive our current staffing and funding crisis, we would require an outline of the MoE’s plan for PLD over the next four years. We support PLANZ's suggestion that it is critical for dialogue to be established to sufficient depth between yourself and key education stakeholders to discuss these issues further and plan a cohesive way forward for PLD in NZ. 

Yours sincerely,

Julia Westera

PhD, Educational Psychologist
Honorary Academic, University of Auckland
Director

Dr Julia Westera is the author of Reciprocal Teaching as a school-wide inclusive strategy and co-author of Best Evidence Synthesis – Reciprocal Teaching.

Check out this 2023 update: Reciprocal Teaching | Education Counts.