Judicial review decision announcement

The outcome of the Post Primary Teachers' Association’s | Te Wehengarua (PPTA) legal challenge into the Teaching Council’s decision on fees has been released this afternoon. 

The judge has made a ruling in the PPTA’s favour.  

The Teaching Council accepts and respects the judgement and will abide by the ruling.  

We wanted to reach out to all teachers with the news, as it is likely to be in the media. We are still working through what it means on a practical level for the Council and for teachers. We will keep you in the loop about what happens next – what we do know is we will be consulting on fees and annual certification again.  

You might be wondering why the Teaching Council defended itself against the PPTA. A judicial review looks at the actions or decisions of an organisation to see whether they acted within the powers given to them by law. The Teaching Council acted in good faith in our interpretation of the law – we took the best legal advice available throughout the fees consultation and throughout the judicial review.  

In many ways this decision will provide long-term certainty for the Council and the profession. It has revealed that the legislation that gives the Council its mandate and powers is not well written, in that the fees component has not accounted for changes to the Council’s mandate. Therefore, some areas will need to be fixed. It is our strong belief that the teaching profession is served best by education organisations and agencies working together, so we will continue to work with the Minister, Ministry of Education, the unions and other organisations.