Northland Principals Slam Government As Hundreds Of Kids Miss Out On Much-needed Help

Northland principals are urging the Government to fix a system which is leaving hundreds of the region’s most vulnerable students without the help they need.

Te Tai Tokerau Principals’ Association president Pat Newman says the Ministry of Education’s In-Class Support (ICS) funding – which provides teacher aides for students with high learning needs – is failing.

Data from Whangarei’s most recent ICS applications shows of the 268 applications received, 242 met the criteria for funding. However, with a mere 11 ICS vacancies available, only 11 of those 242 students will get the help they need.

“That’s 231 kids in Whangārei alone missing out, and we’re seeing this across Northland.

These are kids that desperately need support and they can’t get it – it’s negligent,” Newman says.

“Those children are not only being failed by the system, but it also puts a huge strain on teachers already under pressure.”

Northland principal associations were so fed up with the system they asked their colleagues to cease future ICS applications in the hopes it would send a clear message to the Government that changes need to be urgently made. An agreement was made and now no processing of applications will happen this year.

Newman says principals estimated staff would spend 2300 hours putting together the applications, when the total ICS support available was only 2200 hours - or five hours a week per year for each of the 11 eligible students.

“We looked at the figures and thought this is a waste of time. Schools are spending all this time applying for funding, hoping they’ll get that funding next year, but the reality is you’re likely to go on a waiting list.”

Te Tai Tokerau, Whangārei and Northland Secondary principals’ associations wrote a letter to Minister of Education Jan Tinetti expressing their concern that ICS in its current format had passed crisis point.

Newman says they received a “Claytons response” from Tinetti. He says he is questioning the Government’s commitment to The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“That’s all about keeping the best interests of the child at heart, but if 231 kids are missing out on funding for teacher aides they desperately need – how is that keeping their best interests at heart?

“We are fed up with not being given the tools required. They’re expecting us to go into a gun fight with no ammunition and we have been warning governments that we cannot continue.”

Newman says if the Government didn’t come to the table and fix the problem, there would be serious long-term consequences.

“We need $2m injected into ICS across Tai Tokerau now, that’s cheaper than the $190,000 per prisoner for Ngāwhā.”

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