The Ministry of Education has told the Government it could reduce the number of places on teacher training programmes.
About 2800 students graduate from the courses each year and the ministry told Education Minister Hekia Parata in June this year that number could be cut to 2000 or lower.
The ministry said that would help reduce the cost of requiring all new teachers to have a postgraduate qualification.
The Government said in this year's Budget it wanted to move to postgraduate entry to teaching, but indicated that would not be possible after it abandoned a plan that would save money by increasing class sizes.
