Many of New Zealand’s future surgeons, scientists and teachers are right now sitting in front of an adult charged with teaching them the skills and knowledge that will help them in their post-school careers.

In this way, would it be far-fetched to conclude that teachers have one of the most important jobs in New Zealand?

Laureate Professor John Hattie, for example, has shown that when it comes to what schools can control, teachers have the most power to influence student achievement.

Yet, for many reasons, teaching in New Zealand is not held in the high-esteem position that it should. In their series on primary schools the Herald this week reported that for many prospective teachers, teaching was indeed plan B and a very small percentage of our young adults want to become teachers.

The Initiative’s research on teacher quality pointed to some of the reasons why the profession is not a magnet career. Our World Class Education? report found that “many educators are demoralised by the structures in which they work, the low social status of the job, and the lack of talent recognition within the system”.

In 2014 the Initiative made key recommendations for New Zealand to seriously consider its policies on attracting, training and developing talent within the teaching profession.

We acknowledged that Investing in the Education Success (IES) initiative as a step in the right direction. IES responds to our recommendations in two ways: it recognises and rewards talent but perhaps most importantly it facilitates the sharing of effective teaching practices within schools and across schools. But this mostly benefits those who are already in the profession.

So how can price signals be improved for those still on the career-decision fence?  Lowering the entry criteria for a teaching qualification is not it. All it does is signal to observers that this career is not all that important and is indeed an easier route to a job. We had then recommended that entry be more stringent and focused on quality candidates.

Our report also highlighted that just over half of schools were not satisfied with the quality of applicants for teaching roles. What if schools publicly rated the quality of the graduates by ITE provider? This would raise standards and ultimately improve the calibre of graduates. 

Those at the chalkface need to be recognised as the giants whose shoulders our young generation stand on.