Cake stalls for teachers’ salaries

Schools up and down the country are fundraising to pay the salaries of thousands of teachers, says National’s Education spokesman, Bill English.

Official figures obtained by Mr English show that 3797 teachers, or 8% of all teachers, are paid for out of their schools’ resources, rather than through the Government salary system.

“These 3797 teachers are not included in the staffing formula. Schools have full flexibility in how these teachers are used to meet local needs,” says Mr English.

“The government staffing formula doesn’t meet schools’ needs and school communities are willing to raise funds so they can make their own decisions about staff.”

Mr English says the central control of staffing is a myth.

“Schools are overriding detailed bureaucratic formulae to do what’s best for their students.

“Higher decile schools tend to cover the costs through fees from international students, informal fees, and fundraising, while lower decile schools are able to use their more generous operations grants as well fundraising.

“Schools are determined to make the right decisions for their pupils even if they have to run cake stalls to pay for teachers,” says Mr English

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>