Northland's poor results in national standards data released this week will not improve until students with special needs receive the help they require, a local principal says.
Figures released by Education Minister Hekia Parata on Thursday show Northland lags behind the country in maths, reading and writing results - and is the only region where results in the latter two subjects are worse than three years ago.
Nationally, 78 per cent of pupils are at or above the national standard in reading, 75 per cent in maths, and 71 per cent in writing; in Northland those figures are 73 per cent, 70 per cent and 65.4 per cent.
While Northland principals' president Pat Newman feels the figures are unreliable - due to factors such as high roll turnovers, resulting in the comparison of different groups of children - he says they do highlight the urgent need for more support for students with special needs, such as more staff, social workers and psychologists.
"Schools up here are dealing on a daily basis with children who regularly throw furniture around, abuse teachers verbally, hit out at others, threaten, have no lunches, come from homes where drugs are rife. We know none of this is the kids' fault, but it is impossible to get adequate help for them.
"The screaming need is there is not enough help [and if] we don't get this help we are going to see the increase of learning difficulties and medical and psychological issues, and the flow-on effects to the next generation - it's as simple as that," Mr Newman said.
Kaikohe East school principal Chicky Rudkins was reported as saying the hard winter was not helping, with children arriving at school cold and hungry.
Mr Newman slammed the $359 million government initiative to pay the best teachers and principals more, saying the money would be better spent on special needs and behaviour specialists, rather than "fly-in fix-it doctors" who did not deal with the issues of Northland students on a day-to-day basis.
He felt the policy was a criticism of the good work Northland teachers do.
"I'm actually amazed at how well we are doing. Northland leads New Zealand on every negative socioeconomic indicator available, yet despite this, despite the simple fact that resourcing for special education, behaviour, truancy, health, and wraparound support for families is totally inadequate, teachers and principals in Northland continue to teach to an extremely high level of expertise and dedication."