The complete mess that National has made of our health system got plenty of airtime during the election campaign. While it received less coverage, the education system is a mess too. RNZ this morning:
Tertiary enrolments fall as cost of living rises
Tertiary enrolments have reached their lowest point in more than a decade amid rising costs and a lack of financial support, the Union of Students Associations says.
…
The president of the Union of Students’ Associations, Jonathan Gee, said lack of financial support for students was behind the declining participation rate.“The cost of living, that’s a big issue at the moment in terms of rent costs – 40 percent of tertiary students live in Auckland, you imagine the high rent costs they have to pay. There is rising costs, yes there’s always been student debt, but student support is failing to keep up with those rising costs,” Mr Gee said. …
How stupid does a government have to be to cut the legs out from under tertiary education? In 2017 FFS. Meanwhile in schools:
Teachers’ unions warn strikes over pay likely in 2018
Teachers’ unions are warning strikes are likely as they push for pay rises of up to 14.5 per cent.
…
Union leaders were determined to press ahead: “It’s time to get serious about giving our children the best education in the world and to focus on what’s really going to make a difference,” NZEI president Lynda Stuart said.
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A PPTA paper said the top of the teacher pay scale needed to grow by 14.5 per cent, from $75,949 to $86,967, to restore top teachers to the same relative wage they earned in 2002.
Details on the decline in teachers’ wages and the crisis in teacher numbers here.
Then there’s our ongoing decline international comparisons (Dumbing down a generation: Performance of NZ schoolchildren plummeting) the multiple rorts going on in the private education sector, and so on and so on.
The next government inherits a complete mess in education.
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