Teacher Aides Become Casualties of Govt's ECE Cuts

Teacher Aides Become Casualties of Government’s Early Childhood Education Cuts

The government’s cuts to early childhood education have claimed their first known casualties.

Fourteen teacher aides in the Wanganui region will lose their jobs at Christmas as a direct result of the cuts to early childhood education, which will see kindergartens lose around 13% of their budget.

NZEI Te Riu Roa, the union that represents early childhood teachers and support staff, says the job losses will affect families enrolled at kindergarten.

Teachers will have to take on the administrative and setting up tasks previously done by the teacher aides, and this will reduce the time they can spend with children delivering the programme.

NZEI Vice President Judith Nowotarski, who is also a kindergarten head teacher, says the axing of positions shows the flaws in the government’s policy.

“Not only will these valuable staff lose their jobs in small communities such as Ohakune and Waiouru, they will also be a loss to the kindergarten services” she says.

Investment in early childhood education provides one of the greatest returns of all investments, with up to $17 returned for every dollar spent.

Judith Nowotarski says “New Zealand needs to spend more, not less on early childhood education, to improve achievement levels. We should be aiming to spend the UNICEF recommendation of 1% of GDP, which is an increase of around 25% of what we currently spend.”

NZEI is working with kindergartens, other early childhood services and the community to highlight the effects that the cuts to budgets will have on families and communities.

ENDS

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