Schools are hopeful a review into how teacher aides are funded will start changing a cumbersome system that is leaking money and not giving children what they need
In about a week’s time an almost two-year long review into how schools are funded for teacher aides will put forward a preferred option for consultation.
That will run until March 2023, and while final timelines are yet to be confirmed, there won’t be anything before 2024.
It won’t recommend more money, but everyone in the education system remains hopeful for change.
Change has been a long time coming.
The review was initially born out of the Teacher Aide Pay Equity Settlement Claim settled between the Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa union in May 2020 on behalf of 20,000 teacher aides.
During negotiations the complex funding system for teacher aides was called into question and a 'sector reference group', made up of ministry and union staff and members, was set up to examine whether things could be done better.
But Laingholm Primary School Principal Martyn Weatherill knows only too well the problems have existed much longer than that.
“We get a tiny portion of money each year for inclusion. Every other piece of funding that we get to pay teacher aides is contestable - you have to apply for it.
“What that means is there's a proliferation of fixed-term contracts, because nobody's quite sure what the money will be and there is no real guarantees of ongoing employment as a teacher aide. That's wrong on a fundamental level.”
"We are not paid during the school holiday and we don't do 40-hour weeks. So, we are already going into a job where our earning potential is already way less than other careers but we do this because we absolutely believe in the job." – Sharon Cox, teacher aide.
He said there were huge amounts of bureaucratic leakage within the system, and it needed to be tightened up.
“So much money is burned by the system, administering this system of contestable funding.
“We do meetings where we're trying to find resourcing for a child, you might be asking for, let's say $800. There will be 13 professionals in the room at a minimum of $100 an hour trying to find $800 ... my suggestion? Stop having the meetings.”
He wants what he refers to as a “high-trust” model, meaning constant reviews that a child still requires assistance happen less frequently.
“Even if the review was once a year, as opposed to once every six months, we burn hundreds of dollars' worth of teacher time and support staff time contesting that funding and if you're talking about a diabetic child for example, they are still diabetic, that has not changed.”
He said there was never enough money to go around.
“I've tried very hard to ask my diabetic children to not be diabetic on a Friday, because my funding only lasts for four days. They haven't as yet been able to do that for me ... or for anger management, I’ve asked can you be angry only between the hours of 9.30am and 11.30am? Yeah, it doesn't quite work.”
“The money is going to run the system, not to support students.”
A teacher aide at the school Sharon Cox said the job insecurity was driving talented people from the profession.
“If somebody is wanting to buy a new house and they're wanting to apply for a new mortgage, that's very difficult for us to do when we can't tell the banks that we have a permanent job, especially in the current financial climate.
“If a child moves school, for example, and we lose the funding for those hours that we've had, potentially halfway through the year, we could be out of a job.
“We are not paid during the school holiday either. And we don't do 40-hour weeks. So, we are already going into a job where our earning potential is already way less than other careers but we do this because we absolutely believe in the job.”
“There should be enough of you to go around to do your five reading groups every day and be able to teach that kid that doesn't know their alphabet letters.” – Khali Oliveria, teacher
She said it was also hard on the children.
“Children really depend on us, they need to be able to trust us, especially children with high health needs like diabetes. And behavioural children, they need to know who they can go to when things are getting tough for them.
“That's really hard. If you've got a high turnover of staff.”
Kahli Oliveira has been a primary school teacher for more than 20 years and said it was incredibly frustrating to still be fighting for the bare minimum when it came to teacher aides.
“It is frustrating, teachers will say, yes. Yeah, no problem, we should just take that kid, yep, I've got 30 in my class no problem... our job is getting bigger and bigger, I find, each year.”
Her wish is a centrally-funded teacher aide for every classroom.
“If we had a teacher aide in every class, that means lower ratios, you've got more adults in the classroom working alongside children.
“Whether you've got a child that's got high needs or not high needs. It shouldn't matter. There should be enough of you to go around to do your five reading groups every day and be able to teach that kid that doesn't know their alphabet letters.”
She said the number of students with needs was increasing with better diagnosis.
“And it's still the same amount of money as it was possibly five years ago, whereas the needs of our kids have shifted significantly.”
Weatherill also wants to see the system more centralised with funding for teacher aides allocated in a similar way funding for teachers is.
“We want to be given a number of teacher aides based on the number of the students that we've got in the school. Historically, we've also said, we'll throw in some kind of recognition of the decile level of the school was at so this would be equity index now, and provide that as a base.
“Every school has students with needs, then there are always going to be kids, like our diabetic children, like our high-end needs ORS [ongoing resourcing scheme] students, that's probably always going to be an application process. But the key piece we're looking for is every school to have - based on the number of students they've got - some permanent teacher aides.”
Options being considered by the review group include entitlement staffing, teacher aides funded directly by the government, cluster funding and a new operational grant for employing teacher aides.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the preferred option would be released on the ministry's website within the next two weeks.
