Education: Whanganui principals baulk at proposal to cut Resource Literacy funding

Nicky Collins says the service is critical for 'children that struggle the most'.

Principals have rallied around Whanganui’s resource teacher of literacy as the Government looks to reinvest funding for the country’s entire service.

Nicky Collins, in the role for close to five years, said she had 30 schools on her books.

She works with students from year one to eight needing “significant, tailored, one-on-one support” every week.

“Some of our students have dyslexia or other learning needs and we can accelerate their learning by having an individualised approach,” Collins said.

“We help them get closer to the expected reading and spelling age.”

An email from Ministry of Education deputy secretaries Pauline Cleaver and Mere-Hēni Simcock-Rēweti was sent to principals at the end of last month.

It said the ministry was considering reinvesting funding for Resource Teachers: Literacy and Resource Teachers: Māori into “more optimised and efficient frontline supports and services for schools”.

“Developing in-school expertise is a priority so that supports are brought closer to the child,” it said.

“Access to these services is inequitably distributed around the country and the level of support varies from school to school.”

Collins said making the service more equitable was not a bad thing but that meant improving it, not cutting it.

Gary Johnston says teachers like Collins are a precious commodity. Photo / Logan Tutty

“We’ll just have to see what happens, but this is critical for those children that struggle the most.

“I’m still running multiple workshops every term. All those sorts of programmes will just be gone.”

In 2022, Collins helped to run the Literacy Project, a programme upskilling educators across the Whanganui region in teaching literacy.

“The Government says it wants to use the funding differently and us differently, but there is no clear plan about what that will look like,” she said.

“Maybe, every school gets a pot of funding and they pay for a resource teacher themselves. We have no idea.”

According to the Government’s consultation document on the proposal, ending the programmes would free up $55 million for reinvestment over four years.

If the proposed changes go ahead, funding for the existing services will stop from the start of term one next year.

Carlton Primary School principal Gary Johnston said Collins had done considerable work with children at the school.

“Her level of expertise is what makes the difference,” he said.

“Someone with a really in-depth knowledge of literacy learning can work one-to-one with these students.

“That’s the argument against it [reinvesting funds].”

In the consultation document, Minister of Education Erica Stanford said the current service created large-scale inefficiencies, with individual staff trying to cover huge areas and multiple schools across large clusters.

“I want to ensure that we have the right roles, in the right place, with clear purpose and direction to support a nationally consistent approach to teaching and learning,” she said.

Tawhero Primary School principal Karleen Marshall says the Government's proposal 'doesn’t feel like best practice'. Photo / NZME

A funding cut would mean the end of 174 roles across the country.

Collins said having more teachers in large geographic areas, or areas with a lot of students needing help, would ensure they could provide an optimal service.

“The inequity is a result of some of us trying to support 30 to 40 schools whilst others may only have eight,” she said.

“Erica Stanford has stated it is not the service we provide that she is opposed to, it’s our structure.

“Improve our structure, don’t deprive our most vulnerable students of our highly specialised support.”

Johnston said that while he did not want to “jump on the bandwagon” against the Government’s proposal, teachers like Collins were a precious commodity.

“If we had done a sensible review, we could have had a better outcome.

“This is a kneejerk reaction to finances and we could lose experts.”

Tawhero Primary School principal Karleen Marshall said she was “devastated” by the Government’s announcement.

“I don’t think people realise the mammoth blow it would be for our kids if she [Collins] went,” Marshall said.

“Nicky does a lot of collaborative work with schools and she’s been a massive advocate for structured literacy.”

Marshall said, in her opinion, the service should be left as it was but with additional teachers and funding.

“This [proposal] doesn’t feel like best practice.

“Nicky picks up the vulnerable, the most needy. She is a key person in our community.”

Consultation on the Government’s proposal is open until March 21.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.