Explanatory note

Clause 38, new section 382 of the Education Amendment Bill (No 2) outlines the proposed functions of the new Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (EDUCANZ), which is the body that the Government proposes to establish to take over from the Teachers Council of New Zealand.

Amongst other things, clause 38, new section 382(1) of the Bill introduces a new function for the regulatory body to “provide leadership to teachers and direction for the education profession”.

This Supplementary Order Paper deletes the proposed new function.

This function is irrelevant to the core purpose of the new council, which is to act as a registration body which manages entry to, and exit from, the teaching profession. By requiring the new council to “provide leadership to teachers and direction for the education profession”, the Government risks distracting the body from its core purpose. Other registration bodies, eg those established under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, are not given such wide-ranging functions.