Source: Radio New Zealand
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford reveal a $131 million education package. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
School leaders say the government is better to spend up on teacher development rather than workbooks if it wants to improve kids’ reading, writing and maths.
Education Minister Erica Stanford on Monday revealed a $131 million package as part of this year’s Budget, which she said would boost performance in primary and intermediate schools.
It included hands-on resources, digital tools, and workbooks, as well as intervention programmes for children falling behind, new maths and literacy checks, and money for an extra 36 specialist maths teachers.
The cost breakdown revealed the split was roughly even between resources and testing, and growing and developing the workforce.
Stanford said teachers had asked for more resources: “This is coming directly from the sector themselves, and we are delivering it.”
But for Auckland deputy principal Holly Moore, the entire package was tinkering around the edges.
“I just look at this and I see quick fixes that are not going to improve the quality of teaching as professionals, and it just really worries me,” she said.
“And yes, there might be videos, and there might be … chuck in another PD [professional development] day, but we know that that doesn’t work, that it has to be relentless.”
Moore said stressed and overworked teachers could find some comfort in workbooks, but what the sector really needed was years-long professional development programmes.
“If we’re really, really serious about improving teaching and improving learning, I think we just have to bite the bullet and make that investment.”
Last year’s maths workbooks were “a complete and utter waste of money”, she said.
“We’re better than that … we shouldn’t be relying on workbooks or having workbooks thrown at us and say ‘this is going to solve your problems’, that doesn’t improve teaching.”
Canterbury Primary Principals Association president Lisa Dillon-Roberts said the extra maths intervention teachers were a package highlight.
“That … is the absolute best thing for students,” she said.
“Working out of a workbook or having extra resources is far secondary to that.”
Dillon-Roberts said there were more important holes to be filled. While there was a Budget boost for learning support last year, more was needed, she said.
“We’ve got a lot of neurodiverse students, we’ve got a lot of students with extra need, and … workbooks and pieces of assessment will not solve that issue. Good quality people working with children will.”
She was sceptical about the need for extra assessments – a literacy check at year two and a times table and division check at year five.
“There’s an old saying, and I think it’s from farming, you can keep weighing the lamb but that doesn’t mean it grows.”
Massey University mathematics education professor Jodie Hunter. Supplied
Massey University mathematics education professor Jodie Hunter was surprised to see those extra checks included in the announcement.
“I work in a lot of classrooms across New Zealand, and with a lot of teachers, and it’s something teachers are already doing, so do we really need another check like that?” she said.
“Rather than a basic facts test, I’d like to see that money invested in teachers … they’re our best resource, so teacher development, teacher education is really important in terms of mathematics teaching.”
On that score, Hunter was interested in the plan for maths hubs which were billed to improve teachers’ confidence and competence.
She had seen them have “varying degrees of success” in the United Kingdom, and wanted more information about what they would involve and how they’ would be rolled out before assessing whether or not they would be useful here.
There were also questions about what might be cut to pay for the new initiatives.
Labour’s education spokesperson Ginny Andersen said it was unclear how much of the announced funding was made up from cuts.
“David Seymour has already put out a statement saying its all from cuts somewhere else. I think parents have a right to know where that funding is coming from.”
Stanford said it was a mix of new and reprioritised funding, but would not reveal further detail until the Budget on 28 May.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand