Funding changes felt in schools

Special needs students will be the first to feel the pinch, writes Ged Cann.

Schools are considering cutting support staff in the wake of a Government freeze on school operation funding.

Two teacher unions found over a third of 307 principals surveyed are considering reducing support staff hours and a quarter could go as far as cutting positions to find savings.

The first to feel the pinch will be special needs students, according to NZEI board member and Berhampore Primary School principal Mark Potter.

‘‘We have to make our funding go a lot further than other schools because of the high number of special needs students we have.’’

ABout 15 percent of Berhampore’s students are classed as special needs and in the past year support staff numbers have increased from 11 to 14 to cater for growing demand.

The school has already had to divert $30,000 from other areas to fund additional support staff and teaching time.

‘‘Any freeze or erosion means there’s more impact on what we can offer the children,’’ Potter said.

Changes in the operations grant, It becomes a fine line you’re walking – maintaining your buildings but also providing the education you are required to provide for children. which provides for school-related costs including property maintenance, learning materials, technology and support staff wages, came into effect in September.

Overall funding increased by 1 percent, and the additional $12.3 million was targeted towards at-risk children.

Secondary Teachers’ Union, PPTA president Angela Roberts said the move equated to ‘‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’’ as the Ministry was able to claim funding had increased, while leaving the majority of schools in a poorer financial position as funding failed to keep pace with rising costs.

Education Minister Hekia Parata said it was misleading to use a survey with 307 respondents to characterise a sector with over 2380 principals and all but 15 schools would receive a cut of the additional $12.3 million.

‘‘We are also undertaking a comprehensive update of the learning support system.

‘‘As part of this, we want to make sure that the over $590 million investment in learning support is being spent in the most effective and impactful way possible so that kids get the best chance to achieve.’’

In Budget 2016, funding for students needing learning support increased by $42.1 million over the next four years, Parata said.

The situation may become more dire, according to Potter, with the Ministry considering ring-fencing school maintenance funding, which he said was the largest pool to draw on to combat deficits.

The building maintenance fund currently equates to about a quarter of Berhampore’s funding and Potter said ring-fencing would likely mean the loss of at least three support staff next year and fewer interactive teaching tools to supplement learning.

‘‘It becomes a fine line you’re walking – maintaining your buildings but also providing the education you are required to provide for children.’’

Parata said the funding review would look at how the cost of childrens’ learning and the cost of property maintenance could be better separated.

‘‘In the past, some schools have used their building maintenance funding for other purposes.

‘‘This muddles the costs schools incur for their children’s learning with the costs of maintaining their buildings.’’

The survey, which included responses from 307 school, nationally, also found 16 percent of institutions were considering differing property maintenance to offset costs, 13 percent relied on increased parental donations, and one in five were considering changing curriculum provisions.

A third of schools said they were not considering any changes to make up for the diverted fundings.

Teacher salaries came from a separate pool.