Teacher aides become casualties of ECE cuts
By Krissy Dwyer
Wednesday, November 3rd 2010
Fourteen teacher aides in the Wanganui region will lose their jobs at Christmas as a direct result of the cuts to ECE, which will see kindergartens lose around 13 per cent of their budget.
NZEI Te Riu Roa says the job losses will affect families enrolled at kindergarten.
Teachers will have to take on the administrative and setting up tasks previously done by the teacher aides, and this will reduce the time they can spend with children delivering the programme.
NZEI Vice President, Judith Nowotarski, who is also a kindergarten head teacher, says the axing of positions shows the flaws in the government’s policy.
“Not only will these valuable staff lose their jobs in small communities such as Ohakune and Waiouru, they will also be a loss to the kindergarten services,” she says.
Investment in ECE provides one of the greatest returns of all investments, with up to $17 returned for every dollar spent.
Nowotarski says, “NZ needs to spend more ECE to improve achievement levels. We should be aiming to spend the UNICEF recommendation of 1 per cent of GDP, which is an increase of around 25 per cent of what we currently spend.”
NZEI is working with kindergartens, other ECEs and the community to highlight the effects that the cuts to budgets will have on families and communities.
Related Topics
Post new comment