Millions on ESOL for NZ-born kids

Almost half of the tens of thousands of school children needing help to improve their English skills were born in New Zealand.

More than 215,000 pupils received ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) funding over the past six years 99,000 were born in New Zealand. The grant is for pupils as young as five, who need help reading, speaking, or writing the English language. Quite often, they’re needing help to do all three. It targets those with the highest English language learning needs.

Pupils - New Zealand-born, migrant and refugee - were funded to the tune of $67 million over that same period, according to figures released under the Official Information Act.

Last year, 24,000 migrant and refugee students received funding for term three and four.

During that same period, 20,000 New Zealand-born pupils were funded.

Across the country, and for the past six years, the most commonly used language for students who receive ESOL funding, was Samoan.

In June last year, the former government pledged to inject an extra $9.4 million for ESOL pupils over two years.

Funding has increased from $10 million for the second half of 2012, to $16 million in the second half of

2017.

Ministry spokesperson Katrina Casey said decisions on how funding was used was made by schools.

That could include specialist ESOL programmes, bilingual support, professional development or learning materials.

❚ In term three and four of 2012,

14,366 NZ born students received ESOL funding, compared to 17,940 students who were born overseas.

❚ The top five nationally spoken languages were Samoan, Tongan, Hindi, Mandarin and Tagalog/ Filipino.

❚ In term three and four of 2017,

19,585 NZ born students received ESOL funding, compared to 23,815 students who were born overseas.

❚ Figures provided under the Official Information Act were relevant to term three and four for each school year. Figures for term one and two were not provided. In its response, the Ministry of Education said the annual figure for each year - for all four school terms - is likely to be double.

Ministry support included regional migrant and refugee education co-ordinators, a bilingual assessment service to look at support needed, and online multilingual notices and forms.

All students who were eligible for funding receive the support, Casey said.

For New Zealand-born students to be eligible, they must have been at school for two terms. They also need to have one parent that is a migrant, and a language other than English must be commonly spoken at home.

They have a funding limit of three years - whereas it’s five for pupils with a migrant or refugee background.

Casey said funding increases are driven primarily by migration patterns and as most migrants settle in the Auckland, most of the ESOL funds are pumped into that part of the country.