Educators in Auckland are calling for special treatment from the Government, saying they are struggling to meet the demands of a fast-growing and diverse population, Radio New Zealand reports.
From early childhood operators to secondary schools, teachers and principals say Wellington-based bureaucrats do not understand their needs.
COMET Education Trust chief executive Susan Warren said things were different in Auckland, and harder.
Warren said Auckland schools needed more funding and more help to connect with their communities and to teach children who speak English as a second language. “There's 160 languages and more spoken here. We have 39 percent of our population born overseas.”
She said the Government needed to make sure all its education policies specifically took account of the country’s biggest city. “Auckland's different and we need policy makers to make themselves aware of how Auckland is different and then address that by changing at least the way policy is implemented. And ideally, the way it's written in the first place.”
Auckland Primary Principals Association president Deidre Alderson said the Government did not have a good understanding of Auckland's needs. “I think they think they do, but they've got a long way to go. We've had conversations with the minister about the needs of our ESOL learners and to date we haven't seen any changes made in that region and it's very frustrating,” she said.
Alderson said the Education Review Office recently recognised the uniqueness of Auckland by holding a training session for some of its staff.
Education Minister Hekia Parata said the Government was aware of Auckland's particular challenges and that was why it was spending $350 million there over four years to address population pressure.
She said the Government had appointed a very senior education ministry official to Auckland, and she and the ministry's chief executive had prioritised meetings with Auckland principals.
