The Government has backed down on proposed changes to teacher-student ratios in schools following widespread public concern about the Budget 2012 policy.
The changes were tipped to save NZ$174 million over four years, with NZ$60 million of that going toward teacher training programmes. That NZ$60 million spending would no longer go ahead as planned, Education Minister Hekia Parata said today.
But a commitment to hitting a fiscal surplus in 2014/15 meant the remaining NZ$114 million worth of proposed savings would still need to be found from within vote Education over the next four years to make up for the cancellation of the ratio policy. That shortfall was made up of NZ$15 million in 2013/14, rising to about NZ$50 million in subsequent years - meaning just over NZ$60 million would need to be found by 2014/15.
Budget 2012 promised a wafer-thin NZ$197 million government surplus in 2014/15, a self-imposed target designed to illustrate the Government as fiscally conservative and aware of funding dangers faced by sovereigns in the face of growing global financial pressures and the European sovereign debt crisis.
However, Treasury warned this week that while it was still sticking to the central scenario presented in its Budget 2012 forecasts, risks pushing the books towards the downside scenario, where a surplus was not reached even by the end of the 2015/16 year, were increasing.
Parata told media in the Beehive this afternoon that the ratio back down would not put the surplus at risk.
“The remainder of the savings [the NZ$114 million] will be achieved through a combination of a pre-commitment against Budget 2013, and other savings we will work to find within Vote Education," Parata said.
Work would be done over the next few weeks to try and identify other areas in the Education Budget which could face cuts to pay for the NZ$174 million.
Parata said the decision to back track on the policy was made after a high level meeting on Thursday morning between herself, Prime Minister John Key, who is currently in Europe, Finance Minister Bill English, and senior Cabinet Ministers Steven Joyce and Gerry Brownlee.
17 Comments
What an interesting phrase.
We live in a parlimentary democracy, meaning we have a freedom of speech to debate issues. Aside from entertainment the value in a debate is to open issues from all points of view. Nobody is perfect and nobody can see all other points of view. Maybe things come to light that were not considered originally, or perhaps given the weight they could or should have been.
What a wonderful system of government we have inherited especially when you consider the other options which we can see displayed before us in all the world.
Yet should a politician listen to the debate - or God forbid - be influenced by a democractic debate, actually take value from it and change her mind or his policy. Well. We jeer and throw this verbal tomato phrase "flip-flop" as if there were no greater evil.
Since when is listening, rethinking or modifying a policy in response democratic feedback a negative worthless thing to be laughed at?
Well, yes - but if you want a Government that is totally driven by polls, you don't need a Government at all - you just poll public opinion on every issue and make decisions that way. The trouble is, we get fed such a diet of misinformation by the media, including on this issue where we were shown a succession of sad-faced children in technology classes in Intermediate Schools, when all that was actually announced in the Budget was that the previous specialist funding for schools teaching technology subjects was going to be replaced with per-student funding like any other subject. As long as the contributing schools sending their students to the specialist school continued to do that - and pay for it with the extra funding they were getting - nothing would change.
The fact is that the Government doesn't set teacher/pupil ratios at all. Principals and school Boards of Trustees do. Schools are funded by a complicated formula that partly uses teacher/pupil ratios ranging from 1:15 for new entrants to 1:29.5 for some older pupils - but there is no requirement for schools to actually use the money that way, hence the much larger class sizes that teachers often complain about. That just means that the school has chosen to spend its money elsewhere. Similarly with the "management" funding - the only firm requirement is that there is a principal in each school, even though most schools other than the really small ones are funded for more management positions than just the principal.
So what the budget announcement was in reality was a small cut in schools' funding, using the only tool available under the formula, in order to free up some funding for extra professional development, given that the past 30 years of reducing class sizes has been proved to have had little effect on the only area where we perform poorly compared to other OECD countries - the long tail of educational under-achievement. It was then up to schools to decide what to actually cut. But it is the oldest trick in the book for unions to focus on cutting what will get the most public attention. And the public dutifully swallowed it all, hook, line and sinker.
The main damage to this Government from this u-turn is that it has demonstrated once again that it is not a principle-led Government at all, but a populist polls-driven Government. But that only works if the majority view is always the "right" one - and it isn't, quite often. The achilles heel of democracies is the self-interest of the majority. We've seen it in Europe, starkly, and now we have seen it in New Zealand.
It would save very little. Government funding for private schools was capped about 10 years ago at 30% of what the per-pupil cost of state schools is. The "increase in funding" that the state unions bang on about is driven by the increasing number of parent sending their children to private and integrated schools. I wonder why they are voting with their feet?
Hekia Parata is a novice and a novice can't do the Education portfolio. For starters she likes to belittle the teaching fraternity, and she has engendered such a deep distrust she will forever be on a hiding to nothing from now on. JK should replace her and take a fresh start, but of course he won't.
And for goodness sake, why try to bring in failed policies/experiments that have not succeeded overseas ? - like a merit pay system, as if a teacher was like a real estate agent who sells more than someone else, or like charter schools, where in the UK they have become a bit of a joke.
simple Muzza, cost cutting. If you break the unions then potential staff cost can be slashed.Simple strategy... it is clear the end goal. I'm an interested parent in the sector and I can see the play and the inconsistencies. Take for example post grad for beginning teachers proposed as a prerequiste in the state system vs charter schools...no teaching qualifications required. Charter schools will be better funded through the advantage of state and private sector funding...nice advantage.
My children go to a private school that is not assessed on national standards. If the standards are not for all then their purpose is for performance pay only and to provoide a rationale for closing, consolidating schools or alternative justify paying less, as the the education vote is capped.
My school and private schools in general are happy with the extra private school funding been dished out.
I always found that you cannot fix a problem by throwing munny and idiots at it.
Recognising the problem is simple, remedying it in this Elitist Entitlement State is never gonna work.
Mostly because they do not know...HOW, nor who causes the problems.
How many Politicians and Bankers does it take to screw a Nation into submission, then into the ground and waste yer munny, borrow more and more and then send you the Bill for the repairs, their luxury existence, eternal blatherings, porked scratchings and inflated egos.
Doesn't take much Education to figure that out.
Add in a Treasury, stir and repeat.
By the way Wolly, the sensible rats are leaving the Sinking Ship, or hunkering down with their Capital ...intact.
Way too many hangers on in No Zeal-and.
Way too many bozo ideas.
Way too much elitism for such a small country, with no WORKERS.
Rewarding failures with a gong is laughable.
Promoting idiots with no brains is SUICIDAL.
Smile and Wave don't fix nothing. Same idiots, same problem, same old, same old.
Why work like a Paper Boy...I ask you??.
When you can sit on yer Fat Duff and be a knight of the realm... with a little education and a hypocritical bent..
I'm a sensible rat too Alter Ego...too old to even consider leaving the ship...I sit safe in the crows nest hopeful she does not roll over on the way down and that the crows nest is left poking up above the storm waves...got my stash of grub and grog...even have a wee lifeboat with a Seagull to venture forth...might do a spot of diving for the spoils when the seas calm down.
When you have been scammed, rorted and plucked, it don't take much education, not to repeat the formula.
Hope the Seagulls and Seafood....tastes nice....and the other Seagull keeps on repeating.
At least fuel is getting a little cheaper...the Poll-lies must have used up their quota.
Quantarse is not as busy as it was.
A little economy goes a long way, with a little engine.
Maintaining yer own lifeboat is essential in this day and age.
Maintaining yer sense of humour is getting harder.
The sinking lid policy should start at the top and then maybe we all have a chance at floating our boat.
Key and his royal aspirations as usual, leaving the Titanic in charge of the wrong pilot.
Full steam ahead.....and hang the consequences.
He is investigating QE...........and it ain't Qeen Elizabeth....though she was first on the Agenda.
And as for that other new Rich Dick with a knighthood.....words fail me...ALMOST.
SHEERER AND SHEERER......HYPOCRACY.
HELL-en would be PROUD.
Loves labours...LOST.
MONEY TALKS.......
Snippy - agreed.
My better half pulled out after many years, and the stress of behavioral control was a major factor. Stipid box-ticking ass-covering paper work was the other. The current Govt won't get there, for the same reason Fay and DeSavary didn't win the Cup.
Teachers simply quit, I dont know what the average is 8? 10 years? my wife "moved on" just teaches music part time as she loves it no paperwork. The stress is stupid and a lot of it is the huge and pointless paperwork the Govns force on schools, oh and the money is crap, thats if you get paid these days. The nova pay fiasco is a shocking disaster...
regards
" meaning just over NZ$60 million would need to be found by 2014/15."
No worries...close down ERO which is one massive waste and reduce staff numbers and salaries at the Min of Ed.
ERO has never been able to justify itself...and nor has the Min of Ed....!!! why not?
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.