End of temporary COVID-19 ITE policy changes

Notice for ITE providers

The temporary changes to the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements ended on 1 January 2021.

Now the changes have ended, this means all ITE programmes revert to their previously approved models. 

If you applied to the 2020 interim panel for a programme change, this change also reverted on 1 January 2021. If you have concerns about this, please contact your lead adviser to discuss them.

The temporary changes that ended are:

• a 25 percent reduction in practical experience requirements
• removing the requirement for ‘blocks’ of consecutive practical experience
• removing the requirement for practical experience at ‘away’ centres and schools
• removing the requirement for employment- and field-based ECE ITE student teachers to be employed for a minimum of 12 hours per week at an ECE centre
• allowing employment- and field-based ITE programmes to use historical and future field and employment practice to meet practical experience requirements
• allowing ‘alternative practical experiences’ to count towards practical experience requirements.

What if COVID-19 returns in 2021?

At current alert levels, the Teaching Council is confident that providers will be able to deliver programmes that meet the relevant Teaching Council requirements. However, we know it’s possible there may be another wave of COVID-19 in New Zealand.

The Teaching Council will prepare a set of temporary policy changes which we will have on standby, ready to be rolled out in the event that COVID resurges and significantly affects ITE delivery in 2021. The changes on standby will likely be very similar to the 2020 temporary COVID-19 policy changes. We will also be liaising with the Ministry of Education as part of our planning.

What if I want to make permanent changes to a programme?

If you are planning to make permanent changes to an approved programme, please contact your lead adviser to signal this. For those programmes approved under the new requirements, section 8.8 sets out the basis of the process for making major changes.

I run a mid-year or rolling intake programme, how will the end of the temporary policy changes affect it?

The temporary changes still lapsed on 1 January 2021 for programmes with rolling intakes or mid-year start dates. This means that programmes that started in 2020 but end in 2021 or beyond will still need to meet the ‘normal’ ITE requirements.

If you are concerned that your mid-year or rolling intake programme may not be able to meet the ‘normal’ ITE requirements, please contact your lead adviser. We know that the Auckland lockdown in late 2020, for instance, may have impacted some programmes. We’re happy to work through these challenges with you on a case-by-case basis.

Will the Teaching Council make changes to ITE as a result of lessons learned from COVID-19?

Not immediately.

The Teaching Council wants to capture and use lessons learned from COVID-19. We will be working in early 2021 to gather external feedback and internal reflections on our 2020 COVID-19 response. However, we don’t want to disrupt the sector or make changes to the ITE Requirements until all providers have had an opportunity to seek their initial approval. For this reason, the Teaching Council will not be proposing any imminent changes to ITE as a result of ‘lessons learned’ from COVID-19.