NZEI

Imposing National Standards on bi-lingual and ESOL students amounts to cultural bullying and will do nothing to help them become competent learners, says the education sector union NZEI.

NZEI Te Riu Roa says more resources may be needed to ensure the success of a new abuse hotline for teachers.

The government is moving to strengthen the processes around reporting child abuse and is setting up a dedicated Child Youth and Family hotline for teachers to use.

Thousands of school support staff are set to receive a boost to their pay packets following the settlement of their collective agreements.

The settlements come after four months of negotiations and will give most support staff a four per cent pay rise over a little under 29 months.

Press release by NZEI

The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling on the government to explain why it is giving leeway to Christchurch secondary schools over NCEA, but will not do the same for primary schools and National Standards.

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority has moved to reduce assessment programmes for quake-affected secondary students. It says the key goal is to minimise the disadvantage to students and maintain the credibility of NCEA.

The impact of National Standards in schools is to be studied as part of a three year project involving some of the world’s leading educational researchers.

The ‘Research, Analysis and Insight into National Standards’ (RAINS) project is being funded by NZEI Te Riu Roa and will be led by Professor Martin Thrupp from the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato. 

The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says school and early childhood staff must listen to Civil Defence advice and keep away from quake-affected buildings and classrooms until further notice.

The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, is alarmed that more and more schools are turning to charity to help provide the basics for their students, when the government continues to throw millions of dollars into National Standards.

Almost 200 schools are receiving assistance from the charity organisation KidsCan and another 100 are on its waiting list, as they try and help children from poverty stricken families who are coming to school without lunch, shoes and proper clothing.  

 The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says World Teachers Day (Oct 29) was a time to celebrate and value New Zealand’s high quality education system.

World Teachers Day was established by UNESCO and is marked in over 100 countries around the world each year.  

 Te Reo Maori should be compulsory in all schools to help keep the language alive, says the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.

 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.