School support staff overlooked in funding review

<h3>Educators are concerned that support staff – representing a third of the education workforce &&num;8211&semi; have not received a single mention in any of the <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;mediareleases&period;cmail19&period;com&sol;t&sol;r-l-skljjdy-thhtttjjit-n&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">government papers<&sol;a> relating to its review of education funding&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>NZEI Te Riu Roa national secretary Paul Goulter says it is a staggering oversight considering the vital role of support staff in helping students succeed and in keeping schools running&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Everyone&comma; for example&comma; knows the important role played by teacher aides&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Cabinet papers raise the options of &OpenCurlyQuote;global budgets’ and &OpenCurlyQuote;per child funding’&comma; neither of which will improve schools’ abilities to adequately pay support staff and increase their job security&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Support staff are essential to our education system&comma; but they seem to be entirely forgotten in this review&period; Teacher aides&comma; in particular are usually paid barely more than minimum wage from already-squeezed school operations grants&comma; and have little job security&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;NZEI is ensuring that their concerns and needs are raised as part of this review&period; If we value the children these essential employees are helping&comma; we must value support staff as well&period; Teachers are paid from central ministry funding and it should be the same for support staff&comma;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>NZEI’s fundamental commitment on behalf of its members is to maintain and enhance free and equitable access to education for all children regardless of their personal circumstances&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;