Learning support: Govt says largest boost in a generation – National MP Catherine Wedd

National MP Catherine Wedd (right) says the Government is building up to more than two million additional teacher aide hours every year from 2028.

Opinion

THREE KEY FACTS

• The Government says it is making the largest investment in learning support in a generation.
• The reform aims to create a coherent, multi-tiered system to support students with additional needs.
• Over two million additional teacher aide hours per year will be added from 2028.

As a mother of four children, I know how important it is for children to have a good education.

I am proud to be part of a Government investing so much into ensuring children with additional needs are supported through their schooling years.

Our Government is delivering the most significant investment in learning support in a generation to better support Kiwi kids who need extra help to thrive at school.

The current learning support system – one part of which was detailed in an article last week about Resource Teachers of Literacy – hasn’t been delivering.

It’s fragmented and inequitable.

Parents are frustrated, teachers feel like advocates battling against the system and the ones that suffer the most are the ones in the classroom.

I have 61 schools across my electorate and have heard from the teachers who are struggling to do the thing they do best – teach.

Budget 2025 invests the single largest investment in learning support in a generation – a transformational, system-wide reform that delivers a coherent, multi-tiered, evidence-informed approach to meeting the needs of our students.

It is a multi-tiered systematic approach to learning support that invests across universal, targeted and highest needs of students.

Our message to parents is if your child needs extra help, they’re going to get it.

For teachers, this will reduce the burden on you and allow you to focus on teaching the basics brilliantly.

Every child who requires Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) will receive it and every school with Years 0-8 will get a learning support co-ordinator.

The Early Intervention Service will continue through to the end of year 1 and is being significantly expanded.

And the help teachers called for in their classrooms is being delivered with more than two million additional teacher aide hours per year, from 2028.

Our Learning Support investment has been made possible by a series of considered, careful and sometimes tough choices as well as new investment.

This is driven by being efficient, consistent and equitable in the way we resource the system.

We really want to retain the expertise of qualified specialist teachers in our education system for the benefit of students. The significant new investment to grow essential frontline and learning support services and provide more in-school support that is closer to children and young people will generate new roles.

This is an ambitious work programme and the only way it’s successful is by our amazing principals and teachers effectively implementing it on the ground.

Education creates equality; we need to lift our children up to the bar to enable them to reach their full potential.

We are delivering a world-class education so our future generations can lead successful lives.