Teacher Aides miss out again

Teacher Aides miss out again

26 May 2016

Instead of addressing the underfunding of the education system, this year’s budget has hit schools with a funding freeze for everyday running costs.

Educators are appalled by the freezing of schools’ operational grants which would have a significant impact on already low-paid teacher aides.

NZEI Te Riu Roa President Louise Green said teacher aides and most non-teaching staff were paid out of schools’ operational grants, so this meant a third of the education workforce could again say goodbye to any hope of a much-needed pay rise.

“The teacher aides helping our most disadvantaged students are on little more than minimum wage and often suffering the effects of poverty themselves,” she said.

Ms Green said that parents faced with increasing school charges and donation requests knew how much schools were struggling to deliver the education we expect for our children.

“We agree with targeted funding, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of overall funding, which was already inadequate.”

Instead of an increase to schools’ operational grants, the government is putting $43.2m over four years into schools educating about 150,000 children who have spent a significant proportion of their lives in benefit-dependent households.

Ms Green said that a separate $10.5m per year for students with special needs would also get nowhere near meeting the demand. It also did not give any extra assistance to special education schools already working with special needs children.

“Let’s be clear, this is peanuts when we know that tens of thousands of children aren’t getting the educational support they need to meet their potential.”

ENDS

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