The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa says a recently released OECD report on performance pay for teachers has raised serious concerns about how performance-based pay impacts on the quality of teaching.
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The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa says a recently released OECD report on performance pay for teachers has raised serious concerns about how performance-based pay impacts on the quality of teaching.

National Secretary Paul Goulter says the report has highlighted many of the concerns that education professionals have been trying to tell the government.

The report has found that there is no relationship between student performance and the use of performance-based pay schemes.

The OECD report says a policy that helps teachers to become innovators and researchers in education and not just servants who deliver curricula is the best approach for raising teacher quality.

"The issue is - what are the measures we need to use?  This is where the necessary debate starts and NZEI Te Riu Roa welcomes the opportunity to be involved in the debate," says Mr Goulter.

"Teachers would support remuneration based on a system that recognizes expertise based on good quality evidence from practice-based performance."

"But National Standards simply do not provide any basis for discussion because what is absolutely clear is that performance pay based on dodgy National Standards would have a detrimental effect on our education system."

"Let’s not forget that we have one of the highest quality public education systems in the world."

"We will work with the government to build a pay system that is based on evidence, is  fair and lifts quality teaching and learning."

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The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa says the government's decision to increase class sizes will have a severe impact on the quality of education in primary schools.
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National President, Ian Leckie says it is outrageous that the government talks about improving education quality, especially for those in the bottom 20 percent, while at the same time adopting policies that will do the exact opposite.

Under this policy 90 percent of schools will be affected.

"What parent is going to be happy with the prospect of their six year old going into a large class at the very time they need good quality time with teachers."

"The government has once again not listened to the education sector and instead been getting its education policy advice straight from Treasury."

"It is also ironic that the Minister acknowledges that our education system is amongst the best in the world and yet is bringing in a policy to directly undermine it."

"All parents know that young children thrive when they have better one-on-one time with teachers. So how does a reduction in the number of teachers in our schools and the creation of bigger class sizes result in better outcomes?  It won’t happen. Sadly the Minister is living in a fantasy world."

"What's most distressing is that this will have the biggest impact on the most vulnerable children - the 20 percent underachieving tail."
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Massey University is putting its own financial needs ahead of the needs of the education sector following its decision to scrap all undergraduate teacher education.
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Massey University is putting its own financial needs ahead of the needs of the education sector following its decision to scrap all undergraduate teacher education.
 
The University has just announced that it is cutting its three-year Bachelor of Education Early Years degree and the four-year bachelor of Education Primary.
 
NZEI Te Riu Roa opposed the move last year when it was first discussed. The organisation's site representative at Massey University, Sarah Thomas says clearly the education sector has not been listened to.
 
"The university is doing what is best for itself, and is not acting in the best interests of the education sector or in the interests of quality education."
 
Ms Thomas says this will erode the choice and quality of teacher training. For many students, the best option is the full undergraduate study course. The only option now open to trainee teachers will be a one-year, graduate diploma.
 
"That simply does not suit everyone.  Some students don't respond well to the pressure-cooker one-year approach."
 
"It will mean students will be pushed through the training and out into the real world before they have gained enough experience to fully prepare them for the demands of the classroom situation and this will have a significant impact on teaching quality."
 
"We are not saying that one course is better than the other, simply that Massey will not be providing another option. And this must have an impact on the overall quality of teacher training."
 
Ms Thomas says the decision is based more on fiscal concerns than on teacher quality.
 
"The decision was made largely because of the Government's reduction in undergraduate funding and the need to secure Performance Based Research Funding."
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The NZEI Re Riu Roa says ensuring the delivery of quality education needs to be the priority in any reshaping of Christchurch's education sector.
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The NZEI Re Riu Roa says ensuring the delivery of quality education needs to be the priority in any reshaping of Christchurch's education sector.
 
National President, Ian Leckie says it’s imperative to keep children's education at the forefront of any changes to the way education is delivered in Christchurch.
 
Mr Leckie says the NZEI Re Riu Roa will be closely scrutinizing the Ministry of Education and Tertiary Education Commission report 'Directions for Education Renewal in Greater Christchurch' released today to ensure that those principles are being upheld.
 
He says fiscal and political considerations should not dominate over quality education.
 
"We want Canterbury children to have no disadvantage because of the earthquakes.  This is definitely not a time for radical experiments.  Instead it is an opportunity to invest wisely in education, building on the basis of what we know works best," he says.
 
"We also want to ensure that communities are able to continue to be actively involved in their local schools - something that has underpinned our education sector successfully for many years."
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The publication of school performance data based on national standards is both unfair and reckless, says NZEI Te Riu Roa National President Ian Leckie.
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The publication of school performance data based on national standards is both unfair and reckless, says NZEI Te Riu Roa National President Ian Leckie.

Mr Leckie says the Ministry of Education should accept its share of responsibility for the way the information will be used once it is made public.

"Clearly that information, once released, will be used to compare one school with another and the Ministry is being irresponsible and reckless in trying to dodge its role in that outcome."

"The Minister of Education Hekia Parata has said she does not support performance data being turned into league tables but if the Ministry releases the information then that is exactly what will happen."

"We know national standards are unfair and unreliable.  They do not give an accurate indication of how well a student, a teacher, or a school is performing. In fact, we know they are totally misleading."

"We would urge parents to take a close look at their children’s schools, assess how that school meets their own children's needs and not be persuaded by the erroneous, unfair  and inaccurate information that they will soon be seeing in published league tables in the media," he says.

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The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa says it's not surprising that less than a third of schools have been found to have effective science programmes for Year 5 to 8 students.
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The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa says it's not surprising that less than a third of schools have been found to have effective science programmes for Year 5 to 8 students.

National President Ian Leckie says "the focus on national literacy and numeracy standards has narrowed the curriculum and taken emphasis away from the school science programme."

"Three years ago, this is exactly what we said would happen," says Mr Leckie.

"Science is an area of the curriculum that is constantly evolving and changing and it is important that teachers are able to be supported and allowed to develop professionally."

"It is interesting that the ERO report focused on the limited opportunities for high quality professional development in science and advised that more support was needed for teachers and principals in this area."

"No one in the teaching profession will be surprised by that."

He says "it's ironic that this comes after the Government removed the funding for Science Advisors – a group set up specifically to support science teaching and teachers’ professional development."

"You can’t have it both ways.  Removing funding and support for teacher science development and changing the focus to the discredited national standards means other areas of the curriculum were going to suffer."

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The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa strongly supports the call for compulsory teaching of Maori in New Zealand schools.
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The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa strongly supports the call for compulsory teaching of Maori in New Zealand schools.

NZEI National President, Ian Leckie says the organization agrees with the Trade Minister Tim Groser who says every five year old in New Zealand should be taught Maori.

Mr Leckie says it has been a long-held view of NZEI Te Riu Roa that all New Zealand children should have the right to learn Te Reo.

"Maori is an official language of New Zealand and Maori culture is a key part of our heritage so it is very important that all New Zealand children have access to good quality teaching in Te Reo."

However he says along with any commitment to teach Te Reo to all students, there also needs to be a commitment to resource that.

"Inevitably there would need to be additional resources provide for additional staff and to upskill current teachers.

NZEI Te Riu Roa would welcome discussion with the Government over how to make progress in this area."
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling for better funding and support for early childhood education including a commitment to more qualified teachers and extending paid parental leave to six months.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling for better funding and support for early childhood education including a commitment to more qualified teachers and extending paid parental leave to six months.  

The global goal of ensuring all children get access to early childhood education is under the spotlight this week as part of Education International’s Global Campaign for Education Action week

NZEI National Executive member, Hayley Whitaker says the right of every New Zealand child to free quality early childhood education needs to be an underpinning principle of our education system.
 
"While Governments around the world are being asked promote investment in early childhood education, in New Zealand we are calling for a specific commitment to 100 percent qualified teachers in our kindergartens and early childhood services by 2016 as well as a specific set of targets for an improvement in the teacher-child ratio".

Specifically those targets are one fully qualified teacher for every eight children aged two and over by 2015 and by 2017, a 1:3 ratio for under twos.

"As a country, New Zealand is seriously under-investing in early childhood education," she says.  

"Early childhood education is central to ensuring young children's rights and is also a good investment for individual and national development," she says.

"We know that access to good quality early childhood education can break the cycle of inequity faced by many children and their families and can contribute to better health, higher educational achievements and greater success in life," she says.

"It is critical that next month’s Budget goes a significant way towards improving funding and helping to mitigate effects of its 2010 Budget where $400-million was slashed from this area."

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says smaller class sizes could provide a solution to what appears to be a teacher oversupply situation.
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NZEI says it is aware that teacher graduates are finding it difficult to find jobs and many schools say they are getting hundreds of applicants for one or two vacant positions.

NZEI President Ian Leckie says the oversupply could be turned into an opportunity to invest more in teaching and learning and give extra assistance to vulnerable and underachieving students.

“We know that for a long time there was a serious teacher shortage in this country and things have changed quite quickly.  The oversupply is not necessarily going to last and it’s important that these teachers are not lost to the profession long-term”.

“There has already been considerable investment in training teachers so it makes sense to use those extra teachers to lower student-teacher ratios and create smaller classes,” he says.  

In junior classes ratios have improved.  Effective teaching happens in smaller classes but in Years 4-8 ratios still stand at one teacher to 29 students which in effect can mean class sizes of 30 or more.   NZEI has long advocated that the teacher-student ratio should be lowered to 1:25.   

Mr Leckie says “I’d bet every school in the country would welcome another one or two teachers onto their staff because parents and teachers know that children’s learning improves with more teacher contact”.

“The Government talks about the need to improve the quality of teaching and achieve better student outcomes.  Here is an opportunity to do that by not only ensuring our trained teachers have jobs but also giving children more individual and valuable teaching time”.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is welcoming New Zealand-based research which clearly debunks government claims that charter schools will help disadvantaged students and raise achievement levels.
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As part of its coalition deal with the ACT Party, the government is setting up charter schools in south Auckland and Christchurch.  It says charter schools will help raise student achievement, especially in areas where it claims underachievement is entrenched.
 
The Education Policy Response Group – made up of 12 Massey University experts has been studying charter and free schools in Sweden, Britain and the United States.  It has concluded that charter schools can actually cause more harm to the students they are designed to help and damage local communities.
 
“This just proves that the government’s push to introduce charter schools is ideological and is not based on any hard evidence,” says NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter.
 
The Education Policy Response Group’s research shows that the only people who benefit from charter schools are a few highly motivated individuals and families.  For others, it says charter schools do not provide more choice, they often promote greater inequality for disadvantaged students, and they fail to eliminate underachievement.
 
Paul Goulter says New Zealanders need to keep asking why we need charter schools, and start demanding some real answers from the government.
 
“New Zealand students and schools do better than those in any of the countries where charter schools have been established.  We need to be asking why we want public money going into privately-run charter schools when the balance of overseas evidence so clearly shows they won’t add value or benefit New Zealand’s education system or local communities”.
 
“It’s refreshing to see some solid New Zealand based research coming out on charter schools but it’s a shame that all the thinking on New Zealand’s charter school experiment is being outsourced to a government-appointed Charter Schools Working Group, which is largely made up of people who have a vested interest in the idea,” Mr Goulter says.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says extending paid parental leave would be a meaningful way to invest in children and families, and government attempts to shut down debate on the issue is short-sighted.
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The government says it will veto a bill put forward by Labour MP Sue Moroney which proposes to increase paid parental leave from 14 weeks to 26.

NZEI says the bill is a sensible and long overdue measure to bring New Zealand families up to speed with those in most other OECD countries including Australia.  

The latest OECD data shows that New Zealand spent proportionately less than any other OECD country on parental leave in 2007 - only 5 percent of national income per person for each new baby, compared with an OECD average of 29.5 percent.

The financial cost of extending paid parental leave could also be offset by the resulting reduction in subsidies to early childhood education services.  

NZEI National Executive member Hayley Whitaker says early childhood teachers strongly support parents being able to spend more time with their babies because they know how important it is for children to form strong bonds with their parents.  

“We know that the current limit of 14 weeks paid leave means that many families suffer financial stress, and feel they have no choice but to return to the workforce before they are ready to. They also then face the challenge of finding high quality, affordable care for their babies,” she says.

“I am sure most early childhood teachers would see supporting parents to stay home with young babies as more important than getting government subsidies when those parents have to rush back to work reluctantly for financial reasons”.

Extending paid parental leave would help give all New Zealand children a better start in life, which in turn improves their chances of educational success down the track.  It is supported by a wide range of child advocacy groups including the Families Commission and the Commissioner for Children in its 2011 report into childcare for under –twos.

Hayley Whitaker says “any government move to veto Sue Moroney’s bill is undemocratic and shutting down much-needed parliamentary and public debate on the issue is short-sighted in terms of investing in our children’s future”.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the Charter School Working Group needs to work in the public interest, not the vested interest
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the Charter School Working Group needs to work in the public interest, not the vested interest.
The government has announced the makeup of a working group setting up new charter schools and says it will consult with a wide range of people.

"So far we haven't seen a very transparent political agenda on charter schools and there has been very little detail about where these schools will be established and how they will be set up and run," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"Given there is no real representation on the group from anyone who actually works at the chalk face of education, it is important that there is genuine consultation with schools, parents and those communities which will be affected".

He says "the public still hasn’t been told why New Zealand needs charter schools or how giving taxpayer money to business to run a school will actually make a difference to underachieving students".

Overseas experience shows that charter schools do nothing to raise educational achievement and can take money away from existing schools and undermine communities.  Even the government's own officials have advised that the success of charter schools overseas is mixed and they have not consistently led to significant increase in achievement among lower performing students.
Ian Leckie says the Charter School Working Group needs to be asking some key questions on behalf of the public, rather than interested parties or businesses.

"It's important to know how charter schools will be authorised and how accountable they will be in terms of student achievement and financial performance. We also need to know how compliant they will have to be with existing legislation, how critical it is to the government that for-profit private operators be involved, how student selection will work and how the view of parents and communities will be taken into account in governance models".

"However with the amount of scepticism and contested international evidence about the success of charter schools, perhaps the first question the Working Group should look at is why the New Zealand education system needs charter schools at all," he says.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says principals and teachers oppose performance pay linked to student achievement outcomes because evidence shows this has a negative impact on quality teaching and children's learning.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says principals and teachers oppose performance pay linked to student achievement outcomes because evidence shows this has a negative impact on quality teaching and children’s learning.

NZEI President Ian Leckie said performance pay for teachers overseas was generally linked to student test results because it was seen to be more "objective" than principal or Board appraisals.  However, recent US research [1] shows that judging teacher effectiveness based on gains in students' test scores resulted in one in three teachers being mis-identified. This was because of the large margin of error in test results and the wide variability in ability of students in any one class.

Performance pay systems resulted in teachers competing with each other, distorting learning by "teaching to the test" and putting test results ahead of a child's well-being and overall learning potential.

"Teaching is a job where people need to work together. Performance pay would result in competition between teachers that would be unhealthy for kids," Mr Leckie says.

"What we want is a pay system that keeps our best teachers in the class room and that recognises their skills, knowledge and expertise in a fair and professional way. We want to focus on recruiting the best teachers we can, keeping them learning throughout their careers, and making sure teaching is seen as a highly valued job."

"New Zealand teachers are always ambitious to do better, and relative to other western countries, we spend less on teachers and get more 'bang for our buck' with our world-leading student results in international surveys like PISA."

He said as with any profession, the pay system for teachers needed to be built in partnership with Government and communities with the primary aim of supporting high quality teaching and learning.

[1] Error Rates in Measuring Teacher and School Performance Based on Student Test Score Gains (National Council for Education and the Economy report, 2010, USA).

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is asking why Treasury is trying to call the shots in education and says it needs to stick to its knitting.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is asking why Treasury is trying to call the shots in education and says it needs to stick to its knitting.
Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf is singling out student achievement and teacher quality and performance as the key to the country's success.  He says what’s needed is more investment in teachers, better measures to reward them and more robust career progression.
He is also repeating earlier Treasury advice around increasing class sizes and student-teacher ratios in a bid to free up money in education.
NZEI is questioning what expertise Treasury has in trying to shape educational policy.
"It is well known and I think most people would agree that while teacher quality is very important, teacher quality alone cannot raise student achievement as Mr Makhlouf is arguing," says NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter.
There are a range of factors which affect student achievement.  New Zealand researcher John Hattie says a child's educational achievement is most closely linked to parental hopes and expectations.
"Treasury would be better to focus on economic solutions to child poverty and inequality.  It needs to be looking at how we can ensure children are well fed, well housed and well-clothed so that they are in a position to get the most out of their learning," Mr Goulter says.
NZEI says teachers want to be involved in making New Zealand's top performing system even better and ensuring that New Zealand has the highest quality teachers.
"To do that the government needs to listen and take advice from those at the chalkface about how best to build and maintain a quality teaching workforce and raise student achievement.  It would be disappointing to see Treasury being relied upon as the experts in education".
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The first detailed research into National Standards shows there is a wide variation in how schools are approaching the National Standards and suggests most schools are complying in name only.
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The first detailed research into National Standards shows there is a wide variation in how schools are approaching the National Standards and suggests most schools are complying in name only. 

The three-year Research, Analysis and Insight into National Standards (RAINS) project is following six diverse schools to look at how they are responding to National Standards.  The study is being led by Professor Martin Thrupp from Waikato University’s Faculty of Education and was commissioned by the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.  The first yearly report has just been completed. 

The report's case studies show that schools are approaching and interpreting National Standards in very different ways. 

"What we’re seeing is that individual school context - socio-economic factors, school type and location, curriculum development - has a big impact on how schools are responding to the National Standards and what sort of position they are in to use them. The pattern which is coming through does not show National Standards as genuinely national, they are better characterised as local to schools," says Martin Thrupp. 

Although most of the schools chosen for the study were not openly resisting the policy, only one has turned out to be mainly positive about the National Standards.  

"Schools are very aware of the variations between them in terms of where they are at with National Standards and even the principal of the most positive school said she would have concerns if the Standards were used publicly to compare schools or as a performance measure for teachers". 

"Already one of the schools in the study has pushed down its National Standards student achievement targets because it doesn't want to be in a situation where it looks like it’s not meeting them."

"We’re also seeing a situation where compliance with the Standards is now masking some of the deep concerns schools and teachers have," according to Professor Thrupp. 

"The message from government and ERO is that most schools have fallen into line. But if you actually dig into what's happening on the ground there remains a lot of unhappiness and concern about the Standards, particularly around the labelling of children. It's compliance in name only". 

Martin Thrupp says he hopes people will take the time to read some of the report and its case studies. "I think it all illustrates just how complex schools are and that National Standards were never going to be a silver bullet".   

Immediate NZEI Past President Frances Nelson says “given the absence of a trial of National Standards it is good to see some robust research about the policy and how it is playing out on the ground.  This first report from RAINS also confirms many of the concerns principals, teachers and communities have been trying to flag since National Standards were introduced”. 

The next RAINS report is due out at the end of this year and the final report will be the subject of an international conference in Wellington in January 2014. 
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Suggestions from the Minister of Social Development that babysitting clubs could be set up to look after the children of beneficiaries, show a complete disregard for young children and their families, says the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.
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Suggestions from the Minister of Social Development that babysitting clubs could be set up to look after the children of beneficiaries, show a complete disregard for young children and their families, says the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.

A Cabinet paper from Paula Bennett suggests establishing babysitting networks as a way of helping beneficiaries with children back into work.  Ms Bennett also says that formal early childcare education is not always the best way for children to be looked after.

"Those attitudes belong back in the ark, along with the government's whole welfare reform agenda," says NZEI National Executive member Hayley Whitaker.

There is strong evidence and it is widely accepted that quality early childhood education forms the foundation for all future learning and provides the essential social and developmental skills children need.

"That means environments where there are qualified teachers who are specialists in child development and early childhood education, good teacher-child ratios and small group sizes," Ms Whitaker says.

“Qualified teachers are also pivotal in helping children and families settle into childcare and reducing any stress they may face”.

Recent reports from the ECE Taskforce and the Children’s Commission have highlighted the importance of early childhood education, saying it is one of the most important investments that a country can make.

Hayley Whitaker says "to see the Social Development Minister advocating informal babysitting networks for children is disappointing to say the least.  It reflects an outdated attitude and completely disregards the needs of children and their families, not to mention the value of early childhood education".

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says International Women's Day is a good time to highlight the government’s shameful record on pay and employment equity.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says International Women's Day is a good time to highlight the government’s shameful record on pay and employment equity.

Latest figures show the gender pay gap has increased. The Quarterly Employment Survey figures show that the gender pay gap for the final quarter last year was 13%, an increase from 12.85% in the September quarter.

NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter says that is clearly the result of the government's lack of commitment on pay and employment equity.

When it took office three years ago the government scrapped the pay and employment equity unit within the Department of Labour and halted further pay and employment investigations.

"It has also systematically ignored evidence of institutional pay inequity within education," Mr Goulter says.

A completed pay investigation involving around 800 Ministry of Education support workers who work with special needs children, found they are significantly underpaid when compared to male workers in other sectors who have similar skills levels and responsibilities.  

Other pay and employment equity investigations in education have also shown areas where women employees are not being treated fairly or are being discriminated against in terms of pay, career advancement and the value of their work.

Mr Goulter says "it’s frustrating that despite firm evidence of institutional gender discrimination, no action has been taken on these issues and women continue to be denied the opportunities they deserve".

NZEI continues to call on the government to show some real commitment to closing the gender pay gap, and ensure all women workers are treated fairly and equally.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says it's a shame the Education Review Office doesn’t report on what schools really think of National Standards, because it would paint a very different picture.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says it's a shame the Education Review Office doesn’t report on what schools really think of National Standards, because it would paint a very different picture.

ERO has told a parliamentary select committee that at least 80 percent of schools are getting on with the business of implementing National Standards.

"If you are just measuring compliance that is the simplistic picture you’re going to get," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"However the back-story is that schools are coming at National Standards from a position of forced or reluctant compliance and they have no confidence that they will do anything to raise student achievement".

"There is deep concern about the statistical validity and reliability of National Standards information, particularly with schools expected to submit National Standards student achievement data to Education Ministry with their annual financial statement by May 31," he says.

That means the information will be publicly available and will be able to be aggregated into crude league tables that will unfairly label students, schools and their communities.

Ian Leckie says the threat of National Standards based league tables is causing a lot of anxiety and nervousness among schools.

"There is huge variation in the way National Standards are being implemented and interpreted and they do not accurately reflect each child’s overall achievement or progress. To use them to compare schools or base funding and resourcing decisions on, would be completely unfair."

"It's all very well for ERO to report high levels of National Standards compliance because compliance is all the government is interested in. What it doesn’t want to hear is the back-story of reluctant implementation, serious lack of confidence in National Standards data and real concern over the prospect of unfair and misleading league tables," Mr Leckie says.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says all schools and early childhood centres will be waiting with interest on the results of a ministerial inquiry into the employment of a convicted sex offender in education, to see if there are lessons to be learned.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says all schools and early childhood centres will be waiting with interest on the results of a ministerial inquiry into the employment of a convicted sex offender in education, to see if there are lessons to be learned.

The Education Minister has announced the inquiry after being told that a convicted sex offender had been arrested while working in education for allegedly breaching their conditions of release.

NZEI says it has not been informed about the case and has no details about the individual or what schools or communities they were working in.

NZEI President Ian Leckie says every step must be taken to ensure children are safe and for parents to have confidence in their schools and early childhood centres.

"There are robust processes in place around teacher registration and employment but it appears a serious breach of those may have occurred.  We need to know how to prevent it happening again and tighten up any loopholes which may have been exposed.  Hopefully that’s exactly what the ministerial review will deliver".

NZEI looks forward to being involved in the inquiry and seeing any recommendations that come out of it.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says all government decision-making and policy should be subject to the "is it good for children?" test.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says all government decision-making and policy should be subject to the "is it good for children?" test.
 
NZEI’s submission to the Green Paper on Vulnerable Children calls on the government to consider the development and resourcing of an effective legislated action plan to benefit all New Zealand children and help those at risk of abuse and neglect.
 
According to a report released last year New Zealand has one of the lowest levels of public investment in children and young people, ranking 28 of 30 OECD nations.
 
"If we really want to protect all our children and give them the opportunities they deserve, New Zealand’s total investment in its children and young people must be increased," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.
 
“That means any proposed legislative cap on government spending should explicitly exclude spending on the health, welfare and education of children. More investment in all our children now will save money in the future”.
 
"The government has said no new money will be spent on this action plan for vulnerable children, but we don't want to see a rob Peter to pay Paul approach whereby funding would be removed from existing child services to fund targeted services. Targetting children who are already vulnerable does not prevent other children from becoming vulnerable or being put at risk," he says.
 
NZEI supports a proposal in the Green Paper to establish a Minister for Children and while it favours mandatory reporting of child abuse, it would want to see some robust processes and professional development regarding information-sharing and reporting to help guide teachers.
 
"The health, welfare and education of all our children must be at the top of the government's priority list.  An action plan for vulnerable children needs to be a part of a wider commitment to all New Zealand children which is not dictated by fiscal constraint," says Mr Leckie.
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