Northland educators desperate plea for more learning support funding

Students are missing out on proper learning support, principals say. Photo / 123rf

Northland educators are concerned students with diverse learning or behavioural needs are falling through the cracks.

Their apprehension follows Budget 2024, which failed to fund more learning support, despite principals heavily advocating for more.

Education Minister Erica Stanford announced a revamp of learning support in April, but so far, no funding announcement has followed in the $2.9 billion education budget.

Principals say during a time when schools are facing increased learning and behavioural needs, it is vital to support them.

Hukerenui School principal Bastienne Johnston said principals had been “clearly and loudly” advocating for more learning support funding.

Johnston was at a rural principals’ conference when the Budget was announced and said: “Everyone was deflated.”

“We were just wondering, ‘what are we supposed to do now?’ We have students in our schools who need support, who we don’t have the budget to do it for.”

In a classroom of 20-30 students, teachers are spending their time trying to control students with behavioural needs and it is becoming unsafe, she said.

“We are not providing quality education that’s expected of us, our attention is divided all the time with minimum support. Believe me, we do all the very best we can. But it’s like squeezing blood out of stone.”

Johnston said the ministry has a “tiny resource to distribute” that is not meeting the need across Northland.

Hukerenui School principal Bastienne Johnston.

Her school’s model of learning support is based on “advice and guidance”, where a specialist gives teachers advice after a period of observation.

It would be better to allocate more individual support, she said.

Whangārei mother Ashleigh Wyse believes it is vital that learning support is funded further, having seen the positive impact on her autistic daughter.

Wyse said thanks to a learning support co-ordinator in her school, her autistic daughter Annalise has not fallen through the cracks.

Wyse believes that Annalise would benefit from one-on-one learning because she lacks concentration skills.

However, her behaviour is considered “not bad enough” to justify a teacher aide.

She said it’s upsetting to know there is little help out there, should things get worse.

“We want her to thrive, not just be okay.”

Ashleigh Wyse's daughter Annalise is autistic and has extra learning needs. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Kaeo School principal Paul Barker said learning support staff who visit the school are stretched thin across the region.

“Their caseload is so high that they’re completely overstretched. The amount of time we get to see them is negligible.

“These kids are falling through the gaps.

“In the old days, a speech-language therapist would come and work [with a student]. That just doesn’t happen anymore.”

He said a student missing out can impact a whole classroom.

“In some cases, learning support needs can be behavioural and in that case, they are trying to manage those problems and they come at a cost, and the cost is the education of all the kids in the class.”

Kaeo School does what it can to provide support to students with diverse learning and behavioural needs. Photo / Michael Cunningham

“Every child is entitled to the best, but without adequate support to the children who need it, then I don’t think we’re meeting that obligation.”

Barker said the Government should “put their money where their mouth is” and allocate resources where needed.

His school’s budget for teacher aides sits at $125,000 this year.

Even then, he believes a trained teacher aide is only “keeping a lid” on the learning support issue rather than fixing it.

He said while funding for teacher aides in the Budget would have been helpful, it still would not have been enough.

“It feels as though the Government’s priorities weren’t about education, they were about tax cuts.”

Stanford said she has heard “loud and clear” that learning support is not being delivered to the right children at the right time.

“I am developing a work programme to strengthen learning support so that the education system can meet the needs of learners and their families. We currently spend around $1.4 billion in learning support but more often than not we don’t what outcomes we are getting from this spend.”

Her new programme plans to make the system easier to navigate with data collection, deliver programmes and interventions, build teacher capability, use data to direct funding and develop a network plan for specialist and alternative provision.

Stanford did not directly respond to the Advocate’s queries about whether there were plans to further fund learning support.

Ministry of Education Learning Support staff encompasses occupations such as speech-language therapists, psychologists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists, advisers on deaf and blind students and special education advisers.

Brodie Stone is an education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.