'No money' to combat school violence - Minister

Education Minister Anne Tolley

Education Minister Anne Tolley says there is no money for counsellors and social workers at low decile schools.

Ms Tolley was responding to a call by Auckland primary principal Shirley Maihi who wants extra school support after a 10-year-old bit a hunk of flesh from her shin and attacked two other staff.

Principal of Finlayson Park School in Manurewa Ms Maihi needed stitches and a tetanus shot after the incident.

The decile 1 primary school was ordered to take the troubled pupil after he was kicked out of another school, she told The Dominion Post.

But she maintains that her school was not given enough support from the Education Ministry to handle the child's "short fuse".

The pupil was excluded from the school and then roamed the streets, threatening to beat up pupils.

Ms Maihi wants the Government to fund a counsellor and social worker at all low-decile schools, saying staff are in serious danger every day.

But Education Minister Anne Tolley said it would cost more than $60 million a year and the cash was not available.

Earlier this year a teacher at Avondale College was stabbed by a Korean pupil.

- NZPA