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The Kāhui Ako scheme pays schools to work in groups and redirect money to support children with disabilities. File photo.
Photo: 123rf.com
Taking a $ 118 million scheme that provides extra salary for thousands of teachers is a “poorly considered decision,” says one principal, but another says most Auckland’s school leaders will support the change.
A report from the Ministry of Education leaked to RNZ showed that the government was planning in February to cut Kāhui Ako, which paid schools to work in groups and redirect money to support children with disabilities.
He said there were 220 groups of schools Kāhui Ako, as well as early childhood centers, where some teachers received $ 8000 or $ 16,000 more to share good practices, with one director in each group receiving $ 25,000 to 30,0000 to coordinate the work.
The report said the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, needed the case approval this month if she wanted to reduce the scheme in next month’s budget.
But she wasn’t giving anything today.
“I will not comment on things that have not yet been decided through the budget process and will be announced in due time, and I am obviously disappointed that there has been a document leakage, but we are not commenting on anything, because everyone is dependent on the budget,” said Stanford.
Auckland’s Sagred Heart College director, Patrick Walsh, said he was involved with Kāhui Ako since the scheme’s beginning in 2014 and was alarmed that the government wanted to get rid of it.
“It is a poorly considered decision and a backward to education in New Zealand, especially for children. The underlying principle of Kāhui Ako has undeniable benefit for students, which is early childhood primary and secondary schools that collaborate together to share best practices, including areas of interest to the minister.”
“When you look at high -performance countries, such as Singapore and Sweden, they have very similar models. What we don’t want to go back is tomorrow’s pure -form school regime, which are isolated islands, competing, without sharing the best practices and losing schools.”
Walsh said the Ministry of Education did not properly support Kāhui Ako or evaluated its performance.
“They were stopped driving and there is variable practice in Kāhui Ako. Some have excellent success and others fought a little. But again, that’s where we need leadership from the Ministry of Education,” he said.
Walsh said the scheme would not be successful without the extra salary provided to teachers.
“It would be a disservice to them in terms of not rewarding them for the huge amount of time and effort they devoted to planning, reporting and school visits,” he said.
The head of the Auckland Primary Association, Kyle Brewerton, said he was asking members about the scheme for years, more recently at a conference last year.
“We asked the room to dissolve Kāhui, and it was a unanimous demonstration of hands, bar a handful,” he said.
“Understandably, there are some Kāhui who feel that the benefits were very valuable and that have achieved some of these goals that were originally determined to achieve, but the vast majority see that this money would be much better spent elsewhere,” he said.
Brewerton said the main complaint was the financing is very adamant, and some teachers from Kāhui Ako are as well paid as the vice -directors, but with less responsibility.
He said that moving the money to the student’s support would be very well -vowing.
Darfield High School’s director Andy England studied Kāhui Ako during a sabbatical period in 2018.
He said they were variables, but he would not like to see them go without a complete assessment.
“They are a big investment and there should have been a very serious examination in their national effects. Most Kāhui Ako has made their own assessment, of course, and so there would be some evidence locally. But in my experience, it is quite variable,” he said.
England said the scheme can be modified to remove financing from the principal, but extra payment for teachers should be.
“The main role of schools is really effective. They are where teachers enter other schools and learn what is happening in these schools and can spread good practices, teacher for teacher,” he said.
“The role within the school has become very important in schools. We are not financed in other ways for our own professional learning in a school and therefore offered an opportunity for experienced and motivated teachers to share their discoveries and passion with other teachers. Therefore, these roles are really critical and I would hate them only discarded without thinking they thought to replace them.”
England said one of the reasons why the scheme had fought was that school groups were in an administrative land in Mans, without a shared board of directors and with volunteer members.
The president of the Association of Main Secondary, Vaughan Couillault, said his main members of Kāhui Ako were that his financing was very adamant.
He said one of the arguments for the creation of the scheme was to provide new vacancies for the best teachers and principals.
COUILLAULT said that anchor of the scheme would not be direct because the Kāhui Ako papers and the extra payment were included in the teachers’ collective agreements.
Stephanie Mills of the Educational Institute said it was too early to tell if their members opposed such a change in their agreements.
“Main and teachers are entering term 2, analyzing their claims to bring the renegotiation of the collective agreement. Therefore, there will be many problems that they will need to talk and think before they decide on what, if any, the action they take on this or any other question,” she said.
Mills said the change worked better if teachers were involved from the beginning.
“We would be interested in knowing, first of all, that consultation with unions and their members will happen. We want to see a complete evidence -based review of why the decision is being taken, because there are clearly mixed opinions on the impact of Kāhui Ako and not all schools, and certainly not all ECE centers are in them,” she said.
Mills said the support for learning needed much more government spending, no cuts taken from other parts of the system.
“We are asking the government to take a deep breath and really look at the size and scale of the problem and invest in accordance, not just to move deck chairs in Titanic,” she said.
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