18 July 2022 
 
 
Chris McCashin 
 
[FYI request #19702 email]  
 
 
Tēnā koe Chris 
 
Thank you for your email of 18 June 2022 to the Ministry of Education requesting the 
following information:  
 
1.  Please provide total number of teachers who were terminated due to vaccine 
mandates. 
2.  A recent stuff article noted that there are groups “pressuring” mask mandates to be 
reintroduced into schools. Please provide any letters, requests, names of groups, 
public agencies, directives written or verbal of anything that would be classed as 
pressure / evidence for mask mandates to be reintroduced to schools. 
 
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).  
 
In November 2021, the Ministry introduced a payroll category for recording the number of 
teachers who left their positions for COVID-19-related reasons. This payroll category 
includes teachers leaving due to the vaccine mandate, but also any other COVID-19-related 
reasons, such as health or family obligations. The category also does not isolate whether 
teachers voluntarily left the workforce or left due to the vaccine mandate. Therefore, reliable 
conclusions cannot be drawn regarding the number of teachers leaving their positions due to 
the vaccine mandate. 
 
As a result, I am refusing part 1 of your request under section 18(g) of the Act, because the 
Ministry does not hold this information, and we have no grounds for believing it is either held 
by, or more closely connected to the functions of, another department or interdepartmental 
venture or Minister of the Crown or organisation, or by a local authority. 
 
However, we can provide you with the information we do hold regarding the number of 
teachers who were recorded as leaving their positions under the ‘covid’ payroll category. 
Between November 2021 and the payroll period beginning 20 April 2022 (which was the first 
full payroll period after the vaccine mandates were removed), 447 teachers left their teaching 
positions with an exit reason coded by the school as ‘covid’. 
 
With regards to part 2 of your request, Stuff is responsible for the statement that pressure 
from various groups was mounting to reintroduce compulsory masks in schools, and this 
statement was not attributed to any Government representative. Nevertheless, a search 
through our systems has been undertaken. For this, we have interpreted your request to be 
for information related to groups pushing for the reintroduction of masks into schools. 
 
No letters, requests, names of groups, public agencies, directives written or verbal of 
anything that would be classed as pressure / evidence for mask mandates to be 
reintroduced to schools from groups have been identified. As a result, I am refusing part 2 of 
OIA: 1289850  
National Office, Mātauranga House, 33 Bowen Street, Wellington 6011 
PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140. Phone: +64 4 463 8000 Fax: +64 4 463 8001 
education.govt.nz 
 

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your request under section 18(g) of the Act, as the information is not held by the Ministry, 
and I have no grounds for believing that it is either held by, or more closely related to the 
functions of, another department or interdepartmental venture or Minister of the Crown or 
organisation, or by a local authority. 
 
The Ministry and the Minister of Education frequently receive correspondence from 
concerned individuals about different matters, including mask mandates. The opinions and 
perspectives within such correspondence range from those in favour of mandates, and those 
opposed to mandates, with significant numbers of correspondence received from both 
perspectives depending on the setting at the time.  
 
These pieces of correspondence do not fall within scope of this request because they are 
not from groups; instead, the correspondence tends to be received from individual parents, 
either calling for mask mandates to be reinstated or opposed to mask mandates for their 
children, or from individuals involved in the education sector. 
 
Please note, the Ministry now proactively publishes official information responses on our 
website. As such, we may publish this response on our website after five working days. Your 
name and contact details will be removed. 
 
Thank you again for your email. You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to review this 
decision. You can do this by writing to [email address] or Office of the 
Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143. 
 
 
Nāku noa, nā 
 
 
 
 
Sam Jolly 
Group Manager 
Te Mahau | Te Pae Aronui (Operations and Integration) 
education.govt.nz 
 

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