Government playing politics with education announcement

Government playing politics with education announcement

14 April 2015

NZEI says the Government is playing pre-Budget politics with its announcement today that it is building new schools and classrooms to cope with population growth.

National President Louise Green says this is money that it was going to have to spend anyway because of population growth and demographics.

“Where is the new funding for education initiatives that will help build a quality public education system and improve quality teaching and learning for all children?

“Parents know that quality education includes smaller class sizes, more funding for children with special needs, targeting vulnerable learners, as well as better funding for support staff and quality early childhood education.

“We know that many schools are struggling financially. In many cases this means having to make tough choices between competing needs such as new equipment, employing more teacher aides or providing opportunities for teachers to upskill to respond to kids’ needs.

“We also need to ensure that teaching remains an attractive career choice so that we continue to encourage good people into the profession and ensure that, once there, they stay in the job.

“There is nothing new in today’s announcement. We want to see a real Budget announcement with new money to help all children get a great education."

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