Categories: News

Huge hope that new government will rebuild public education

<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Teachers and educators have huge hope that the new Labour-led government will herald the rebuilding of New Zealand’s public education system and restore our children’s birthright to a free&comma; world-class education&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Labour&comma; the Greens and New Zealand First have all promised to restore funding for schools and early childhood education&comma; and scrap discredited policies such as National Standards and charter schools&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This new government is an opportunity to make children a priority once again&comma;” said NZEI president Lynda Stuart&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our children deserve the best education in the world&comma; New Zealand can afford to provide it&comma; and it’s time to give it to them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;NZEI members will hold the new government to account for its promises to children and to those who work in education&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We anticipate making real progress on our two key priorities for next year – achieving pay equity for support staff&comma; support workers and ECE teachers&comma; and fixing the teacher shortage through getting better pay and more time for teachers to teach and for principals to lead&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Educators also expect action on the key education policies&comma; which all three parties have promised&comma; including&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul style&equals;"list-style-type&colon; circle&semi; text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&NewLine;<li>A funding jolt for schools&comma; which have been increasing parent donations dramatically in order to cope with the shortfall&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Dramatically increasing the number of children funded to receive additional learning support – thousands of kids are currently missing out&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Better and more culturally appropriate support for M&amacr;ori and Pasifika learners&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Centrally funding support staff so schools aren’t forced to cut back on learning support for children when their budgets are tight&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;After nine years of neglect and deliberate underfunding&comma; fixing school and early childhood education will not be easy and it won’t be cheap&period; But all our children are worth it&comma;” Ms Stuart said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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