Teachers' union backs heads over money woes

The secondary teachers union says concern over "inadequacy" of school resourcing is widespread, not limited to the North Shore principals lobbying for more money.

The heads of the Post Primary Teachers Association and the Secondary Principals' Council wrote in an open letter to Education Minister Chris Carter yesterday concerns of the North Shore Principals' Association were not isolated.

The North Shore group said last week that it would boycott the Government's Schools Plus initiative until its worry over "dire" funding was acknowledged.

A letter signed by PPTA president Robin Duff and council chairman Arthur Graves to Mr Carter said: "We are seriously concerned that we have seen no public indication that you have understood the current resourcing pressures schools are under ... or the need to address those before applying significant new resources to accommodate what would be a major new policy.

"We also suggest that simply repeating calls for teachers and principals to shut up about resourcing and 'just get on with it' is not constructive and does not encourage a positive engagement with the Schools Plus policy."

Mr Carter is due to meet the North Shore principals on Friday.

He has defended the level of funding and said in Parliament yesterday that New Zealand spent 4.7 per cent of its GDP on schools.

This was the third-highest amount in the world.

He said the Government was committed to funding Schools Plus, a policy that had "overwhelming support".