Cuts: Adult ed, curriculum support and staffing

Media Release
30 September 2009

Adult education, curriculum support and teacher staffing – cost cutting casualties.

Adult education, curriculum support days and teacher staffing will all be casualties of National’s plan to cut costs in the secondary sector.

Education minister Anne Tolley found herself faced with a sea of yellow placards saying ‘don’t let the sun set on night classes’ when she addressed the PPTA annual conference this afternoon. Despite repeated calls from schools, students and communities to re-think her decision to slash 80% from adult community education (ACE), she refused to do so.

Tolley again used the “current economic environment” to justify stripping the ACE funding – saying there was no money to fund “recreational and hobby courses.”

She stressed the importance of focusing on literacy and numeracy in adult education, but evaded a question about whether the cuts would have the opposite effect to what was intended, by destroying ACE provision in poorer areas, while user-pays ‘hobby courses’ continue in more affluent schools

“It seems as though she is unaware of the educational impact - that it would have the perverse effect of undermining what she was trying to achieve,” PPTA president Kate Gainsford said.

Tolley also refused to budge on the issue of stripping $50 million from schools’ staffing budgets and offered no ideas on how this could be done. She also made it clear that teachers would not be receiving wage increases in the 2010 negotiation round.

She claimed it was “not an easy decision” but Gainsford was not convinced by the rhetoric.

“She claims she wants to invest in the sector but there is a huge gap between her rhetoric and her actions.

Tolley refused to consider the provision of further curriculum development days to help teachers come to grips with the complexities of the new New Zealand curriculum.

Gainsford described this as “short-sighted and unwise.

“The minister says she does not want the productivity loss of having a few parents staying home to look after children during teacher-only days -but apparently accepts there is no problem in having teachers under-prepared for the demands of the new curriculum.”

In his closing address to Tolley PPTA senior vice president Robin Duff promised PPTA would continue to engage with her for the benefit of New Zealand schools, students and teachers.

“Whilst governments come and go PPTA is totally committed as professionals to secure what is best for the sector. We have done so for the past 60 years, and we will continue to do so.

Governments around the world seem to be increasing their spending on education, and we would like to see that level of support for our system. It’s time for education to be seen, not as the problem, but the solution.”

ENDS

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