Primary schools will tightening their belts following today's Budget, according to the country's largest education union.
Finance Minister Bill English and Education Minister Hekia Parata today unveiled two new charter schools and more funding for earthquake-strengthening and fixing payroll system Novopay, but only a 1 percent increase in school operational funding.
The New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) says this won't cover increasing costs, and school boards will need to cut budgets and drop support staff.
"Teacher aides in particular are poorly paid despite the vital role they play in supporting students," says NZEI president Louise Green.
"Schools employ teacher aides out of their operations grant, and when money is tight, there is no room for pay rises. Teacher aides with years of experience are frequently paid barely more than minimum wage and are the first to have their hours reduced."
- READ MORE: Two new charter schools in education spend
In the Government's total new education spend this year there is $23 million for teacher aides, but that will only pay for enough aides to cover 1500 special needs students.
Ms Green says Budgets in recent years have been particularly more generous with operational funding boosts, with a 2.9 percent increase in 2011 and 2 percent in both 2012 and 2014.
She says the money spent setting up privately-run charter schools would be better spent on existing state schools.
"Hardly any of the current crop of charter schools are even meeting their minimum guaranteed rolls."
And the Budget's new funding for early childhood education will only "keep pace" with growths in rolls at daycare centres, says Ms Green.
"This risks centres being forced to reduce the ratio of qualified teachers and this is bad news for quality early childhood education.
"It is ironic that the Government talks about improving the quality of teaching and yet is failing to support quality at such an important time of a child's life."
The Government's $75 million boost to ECE is aimed at increasing the number of hours available and providing space for younger children.
3 News
source: newshub archive
