35771 (2025). Hon Damien O'Connor to the Minister of Education

35771 (2025). Hon Damien O'Connor to the Minister of Education: How does the decision to disestablish the Resource Teachers of Literacy service align with the Government’s stated goal of improving curriculum level literacy rates nationwide?

Hon Erica Stanford: I am advised by the Ministry of Education (the Ministry) that evaluations undertaken over time have highlighted: • Resource Teachers: Literacy (RT Lit) are inequitably distributed • the level of support, practices and processes vary between schools and kura • there are inconsistent approaches • staff are covering multiple schools across large clusters and geographical areas. The Ministry reports that these evaluation findings were frequently reflected in feedback received through recent consultation with the sector on the proposal to reinvest RT Lit funding. The Government has made significant investments in literacy and literacy supports through Budgets 2024 and 2025. RT Lit funding will be reinvested to deliver multi-tiered, in-school learning supports and support to accelerate student progress. This includes the expansion of structured literacy approach staffing for Years 0 to 6.