No School Left Disadvantaged At Start Of Year

Media release

16 January 2013

No School Left Disadvantaged At Start Of Year

The Ministry of Education today reassured school sector groups that the current issues with Novopay would improve over time and that it was working with Talent2 to make it happen.

Rebecca Elvy, group manager, education workforce, said schools wanted to see action and that the Ministry was acting on their concerns.

Sector representatives advised the Ministry at their regular meeting today to bring forward the review announced last year and to ensure the chairperson was sufficiently independent so that schools could have confidence in its findings.

The Ministry has reassured schools affected by inaccurate Novopay pay-roll reports used to monitor staffing levels that none would be left disadvantaged and outlined its approach.

The technical fix for the reports that have been inaccurate is being rigorously tested and should be released within the next fortnight.

Ms Elvy said the Ministry would make an advance to any school experiencing cash- flow problems because they have had an overpayment to a staff member made out of their operational funding.

She was encouraged that more than 70 percent of schools had completed their start-of-year reports. The remainder were being contacted so that help could be offered.

Ms Elvy said: “I’m pleased by the completion rate. Schools have been working hard to get their reports completed and I acknowledge that hard work.

“Today’s meeting was a chance to update sector groups on progress with the start-of-year process, including the banked staffing issue and underline the message that the Ministry would continue to work with schools.

“The start of the school year, when thousands of school staff move schools to take up new jobs, was always expected to be a challenging period in the introduction of a large pay system, such as Novopay.

“Because of this, the Ministry informed the education sector to expect further problems to occur in the next two pay rounds. Once these have been completed the system is expected to improve.

“Improvements are being made to Novopay but the Ministry acknowledges that the rate of improvement was not nearly fast enough.”

ENDS

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