The Government will offer help to bulk funded schools who employed permanent over entitlement staff before they received notification that the system would be abolished.

Education Minister Trevor Mallard said the Government was willing to help schools that hired permanent staff, in good faith, on the understanding that their funding was constant.

"I have undertaken to secure the jobs of permanent teachers hired prior to June 1998 that have been paid out of bulk-funding money. If a school loses funds under the new formula and cannot afford to pay that teacher, the Government will make funds available to ensure they do not have to be made redundant.

"This will only apply where schools have made every attempt – for example through attrition – to get those permanent over-entitlement staff 'under the line'.

"It will be linked to the individual, not the position. This will 'grandparent' the individual until such a time as they leave the school, or another staff member leaves. "

During question time today Trevor Mallard reminded Parliament that he had written to every school in the country two years ago stating clearly that the bulk funding system would not remain under a change in Government.

"I am not willing to bail out schools that continued to hire permanent staff, without thinking about how they would fund those positions in the future. That is not prudent management."

Trevor Mallard said the Government was willing to listen to the concerns of bulk funded schools if they had constructive advice which worked within the Government's overall objectives.

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