29 April 2005

Student Debt a Major Issue For Nurses Too

The Nurses Organisation has come out in support of a report released by the primary teachers and early childhood workers’ union, NZEI into student debt and the union’s call to make the student loan scheme fairer.

The student teacher’s survey found student debt affects student teachers in the classroom, causes stress and affects their ability to save money and make decisions such as whether to have children.

“Our research into nursing student debt, released in a report released in 2003, had almost identical findings,’ said NZNO president Jane O’Malley.

“Like primary and early childhood teachers, nurses who are also a predominantly female workforce, are more adversely affected by the student loan scheme than the male workforce.”

Jennifer Reid, a current nursing student, also supported the report.

“What politicians and bureaucrats don’t realise is that student debt affects us as we go about our daily work whether it is teaching kids and nursing patients,” she said.

“It is stressful and it’s a heavy burden on top of a demanding training course.”

Jane O Malley said the response from the Ministry of Education was depressingly unhelpful to students and working nurses struggling with debt.

“The Ministry of Education is questioning the details about the figures and disputing the research methodology instead of listening to what students are saying,” she said.

“We are very interested to hear that there will be announcements about student debt from David Benson Pope, the Minister of Education in the budget,’ she said.

“We want to be hopeful but the reality is there has been negligible impact on student debt in the last three years. In fact it has increased for both teachers and nurses.”

ENDS

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