Who supports support staff in schools?

I NEED to clarify parts of my letter which you published last week about support staff in schools (ODT, 21.8.18).

I have discovered that it is not the majority of teacher aides who have had their pay increased — some are still on the minimum wage.

I now understand that there are three classes of support staff in schools:

1, learning support specialists — these are the people who were on strike earlier last week.

2, support workers — these are the ones who have deservedly been given a pay increase.

3, school support staff — the ones we see in our children’s schools every day, including the office staff, perhaps a librarian, and the teacher aides in classrooms giving oneonone assistance to pupils who have physical, mental and/or behavioural needs.

These people are paid by the schools they work in from the Government’s operations grant to the school, which also covers such things as classroom curriculum resources, electricity, insurance, toilet paper, etc.

The operations grants are woefully inadequate to allow schools to pay all of their support staff a living wage or to employ more of these muchneeded people.

Teachers are saying that it is not so much about the money; it is more they need extra classroom support.

If the Government (through the Ministry of Education) paid the support staff directly and employed more of them, this would be of tremendous benefit to all schools.

L. McDonald Northeast Valley

Good for years yet

WITH all the issues raised about the new Dunedin cycleways costing millions, slashing parking availability and increasing congestion in the city, there is one positive we can all agree on.

At the rate they are being used by cyclists, we shouldn’t need to replace them until well into the next century. Duane Donovan

Bradford