53757 (2024). Hon Jan Tinetti to the Minister of Education

53757 (2024). Hon Jan Tinetti to the Minister of Education: Does the Minister stand by her statement that the government is providing “all of the resources, teacher guides, and workbooks that our kids are going to need to succeed”; if so, how, if at all, does she reconcile this with the statement made by Liam Rutherford, NZEI Te Riu Roa national executive member and teacher, who said “Principals will not be able to provide additional teacher aides to their staffing, or any other support staff. Our teachers, principals and whānau have been crying out for dedicated support for ākonga for a long time. More teacher aides and learning support specialists are a proven way to support students to learn and teachers to teach in one hit. We have a learning support system that is severely under resourced; once again, children are missing out”?

Hon Erica Stanford: I stand by my statement in the context that it was made – which was about the teaching of math. The statement provided by the member from Liam Rutherford is about learning support which is a completely different matter. I have been very clear that our current learning support system is not currently fit for purpose which is why stronger learning support it is one of my six priorities.