NZEI since 1883

The New Zealand Educational Institute has been at the centre of formal learning in this country from the early years of organised European settlement.

NZEI emerged from associations of teachers that developed, in particular, after the 1877 Education Act introduced free primary education. Each association worked directly with its local provincial education board. 

But when provinces were abolished in favour of a centralised government in Wellington, it became apparent that a national body of educators was needed to influence policy in the capital.

NZEI established

On 3 January 1883, a meeting of representatives from five provincial associations met in Christchurch to form the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), with a short list of nine rules. The first rule set out who would belong to the institute – the five associations plus any others who might join in the future. The second rule established that the Institute’s object was to “promote the interests of education in the Colony of New Zealand”.

Later NZEI members noted that the Institute’s decision to focus on “education” rather than “teaching” was inspired, as it has enabled NZEI to develop with the sector.

Familiar Problems

Many of the early problems facing members have familiar echoes. Educators then faced a system of prescriptive “standards”-based examinations for very young children that did not encourage active learning. Teachers wanted better training, more access to the universities, a less crowded syallbus, and a fairer system of appointments and promotions.

Advocating Teachers

Members were strong advocates for their students, but in the short term also had to address their own precarious employment situations. School committees oversaw teachers and many teachers reported that they weren’t reliably paid or were unfairly dismissed. The Institute began to take legal action in defence of members.

Eventually a national pay scale was achieved, as was a national system of appointments and promotions. Too often, teacher positions had been appointed according “political influence, board canvassing and committee truckling”.

Next came a provident fund to assist teachers who, in the days before social security, worked on through illness, exhaustion and old age to retain an income. It also helped their widows and orphans. The Institute was also an early proponent of equal pay and conditions for men and women teachers.

Education Policy

Through the opening decades of the twentieth century, as member numbers and professional activity grew, NZEI was increasingly heeded by governments in the development and implementation of education policy.

Something of a golden age in primary and secondary education emerged in the mid-twentieth education, with the Institute developing and supporting initiatives based on the relatively new science of child development. Special education needs came to be acknowledged and the importance of “play” recognised. Governments, in the main, supported these developments in their policies.

Teacher Training

NZEI was also instrumental in improving school administration and teacher training. In the early 1950s it began to develop policy to support the better teaching of Maori children. As well, with free secondary schooling now available and rolls mushrooming, NZEI worked with the newly established Post Primary Teachers Association on matters of common interest.

Leading the World

By the end of the century, New Zealand would be internationally recognised as having one of the best compulsory education systems in the world – although government spending on it was relatively light.

Education Reform

Well before the end of the century, however, education reforms forced the Institute to tackle a series of upheavals. First rolls began to fall in the 1970s, after the post-war baby boom, then economic recession led to cuts in education spending. The Picot Report and the introduction of Tomorrow’s Schools in the late 1980s abolished education boards and threw principals and schools into the deep end of responsibility for school management. More cuts to spending followed in the 1990s, as did harsh industrial legislation that undermined unions. As a result, a number of organisations, mainly from the early childhood sector, such as the Kindergarten Teachers Association and the Combined Early Childhood Union of Aotearoa, amalgamated with NZEI.

Bulk Funding

During the 1990s, NZEI members ran a series of effective campaigns against the bulk-funding of teacher salaries and for pay parity between primary and secondary teachers, and between kindergarten and primary teachers.

The early years of the new century saw NZEI members’ efforts in lobbying for increased spending on education pay off, although the problems of devolution of responsibilities to schools without adequate support remained.

Full Circle

At this time, members took an active professional interest in new thinking around “assessment for learning” that would see more individualised teaching for students. But reforms introduced after 2008 brought a return to “standards”-based education and the introduction of charter schools – publicly funded private schools that put unqualified teachers back in front of children.

NZEI’s 2015 Annual Meeting, with a theme of “It’s got to be about the child”, saw an agenda once again centred on promoting the interests of education, on behalf of children.

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