A teachers' union is fuming as yet another problem with the new Novopay system is confirmed.
There have been serious issues with teachers getting the right amount of pay since the system launched in August last year, and now the Ministry of Education has confirmed school funding is also affected.
NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter says it could have huge implications for school finances.
"The danger is principals and boards of trustees are unable to get the right number of teachers in the right place at the right time because they're being fed incorrect information about how much money they have available to them."
He says one principal with a staff of 40 was originally told he was four teachers under, and now Novopay is telling him he's six teachers over, which has huge implications for his school finances.
Banking staffing reports allow schools to adjust their staffing across the year to ensure they are operating in the most efficient way.
“If a principal gets those calculations wrong, it can be serious for that school,” Mr Goulter says. “If they haven’t employed enough teachers over a year then students have been short changed, but if they have employed too many then they will have a funding shortfall.”
Mr Goulter says the constant problems are an unnecessary stress going in to the new year.
Labour acting education spokesman Chris Hipkins says teachers have every right to be frustrated.
"Novopay's been a disaster from start to finish, and what's becoming clearer and clearer as we go through this, the Government made a big mistake signing off Novopay.
"It clearly wasn't ready to be implemented when they hit the go button on it."
Mr Hipkins says Education Minister Hekia Parata needs to come back from her holiday and sort out the mess.
RadioLIVE / 3 News
source: newshub archive
