Minister attending sixth annual ISTP in Berlin

Education Minister Hekia Parata will today travel to Europe to attend the sixth International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) in Berlin. She will be accompanied by teachers and union leaders from New Zealand.

Education ministers, experts and union leaders from countries with high-performing education systems will convene in Berlin on March 3-4 for the two-day summit, hosted by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Lander in the Federal Republic of Germany, in partnership with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Education International.

Ms Parata will lead the New Zealand delegation comprising Whangaparaoa College Principal James Thomas, Fairburn School Principal Frances Nelson, PPTA President Angela Roberts and NZEI President Louise Green.

“ISTP, which New Zealand had the privilege of hosting in 2014, has become one of the most important forums for open and constructive exchange on effective teaching policies and practice worldwide,” says Ms Parata.

“Each year the Summit provides the opportunity to learn from the best of international thinking on education in order to strengthen teaching practice and raise student achievement.

“Members at the 2015 Summit showed strong interest in our Communities of Learning and I look forward to updating them on the huge progress we have made in the last year.”

Prior to her attendance at the Summit, Ms Parata will visit Estonia to meet with education experts there and discuss their comparatively rapid progress in educational achievement in recent years.

Estonia has one of the top-performing education systems in the OECD, ranking 11th in reading and maths and 6th in science among all PISA participating countries and regions. 

“I’m very interested in how Estonia’s experience can inform our efforts given the similarities of a small population and government approach,” says Ms Parata.