Fergusson Intermediate School staff are calling for next month’s Budget to increase staff funding, as the school prepares to hold a fundraiser to cover learning support costs.
“It’s not my job, like that frustrates me. I’m not in this job to make money or to go out and look for money but the bottom line is that our kids deserve a better care, a better standard of support, so that’s where we’re spending a lot of our time,” principal Simon Kenny said.
The Government is set to deliver its ‘Growth Budget’ on May 22, which reveals spending plans in all areas the Government is responsible for.
“I’d love to see an investment in people,” Kenny said.
He said his school in Upper Hutt, along with other intermediates in the area, are spending three to four times the Government’s learning support allocation with demand for support for students with additional learning needs outstripping the funding provided.
The Ministry of Education reports spending around $1.3 billion each year on learning support.
Kenny said the school has assessed that 39% of the 334-person student roll have additional learning needs for health or neurological conditions, among other reasons. Neurodiverse learners are the largest group, including conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism.
The Highest Needs Review released in 2022 included analysis from the former Social Wellbeing Agency that for every seven children receiving learning support, another three may have an unmet high need at some stage in their education journey.
Around one in five students have additional learning needs, the Ministry of Education said.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said principals, families and education groups have raised concerns with the learning support system with her.
“There’s specialist teachers, there are teachers in classrooms, there are teacher aides – they all play their part and they all need to be supported and we will have more to say on all of that in the coming weeks,” she said.
NZEI Te Riu Roa’s Kia Mahi Kotahi: Working Together Learning Support Workforce Plan reports an additional $2.5 billion should be spent on learning support between 2025 and 2029 to address gaps in the system.
“They’re just on their own for so long… you just wish you could get their faster,” NZEI representative and speech language therapist Conor Fraser said.
In June 2023, 16,157 students under the age of six waited an average of 105 days to receive support from the Government’s Early Intervention Service, according to the Ministry of Education.
The NZEI report states significant additional finding is required to “transform into a fully inclusive system”.
“No amount of ‘rearranging of the deck chairs’ by reallocating existing staffing and resourcing is going to fix deep seated issues in the capacity and capability of our system,” the report read.
NZEI’s recommendation for an additional $2.5 billion to be spent over five years includes doubling the number of specialist staff; fully funding teacher aides instead of the current approach where schools top up funding from other areas; retaining the resource teacher roles currently under review; employing more resource teachers of learning and behaviour and learning support coordinators; and investing in professional development.
“Like the infrastructure deficit, the learning support deficit will only be addressed though bipartisan commitment to investment,” NZEI states in the report.
The report also said the Government won’t meet its target of 80% of Year 8 students meeting or exceeding curriculum expectations in reading, writing, and maths by December 2030 unless the learning needs of children requiring additional support is addressed.
Fergusson Intermediate teacher Belinda Southcombe said every teacher tries to provide a quality education for every child.
“But when you’ve got… a third of your class that need extra help and extra energy, those kids (without additional learning needs) over there are missing out as well.”
