National has no choice but to call off the education cuts. The sooner they do it the sooner it will stop killing them in the court of public opinion. The education sector is united:
Sector revolts against teacher cuts
The Education Minister knew she had a fight on her hands – but now it is turning into a war.
The Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools says its relationship with the ministry has completely broken down, and in an unprecedented move, teachers, principals, trustees and parents are all preparing to fight her together, to stop cuts to teacher numbers.
Headlines like this are going to keep appearing:
Wellington school technology centre closing after cuts
The Government’s classroom cuts continue to hurt, with a Wellington intermediate school today telling parents it will be forced to close its technology centre, which serves 17 other Wellington schools.
Hekia Parata is under so much pressure over cutting teachers and increasing class sizes that she now can’t answer one simple question: will it cause school technology centres to close?
“We are focussing on raising quality,” is her only answer.
RNZ this morning reports children coming home in tears at news of potential technology class closures, and that The Maori Party and Peter Dunne are expressing concern (claiming they weren’t briefed, and starting to cite “no surprises” clauses). It won’t help that:
Key won’t rule out future school cuts
Intermediate schools have been saved from losing more than two teachers over the next three years, but Prime Minister John Key will not give an assurance that they will not face more severe cuts after that.
I have some skin in this game. For many years I’ve done voluntary activities in schools to promote technology education. How many of the teachers and the programmes that I’ve worked with are going to disappear? Promoting technology is clearly the right thing to do. Any country in its right mind will be focusing on MORE technology education, not LESS. But this is not, currently, a country in its right mind. National needs to ditch these stupid cuts now.
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