Prior to the election they made significant promises to reduce the size/spend of bureaucracy. So far they have completely failed.
1. Our government education spend for 2024-25 is $20.5billion (exclusive of tertiary education). Over the last 15 years this is associated with a significant decline in the education achievements of our young people.
2. 31.3% of the public sector work-force is for education (150,800 employees).
3. This is all paid for by taxpayers.
4. The Ministry of Education budget – after excluding property (where they are known to be incompetent) and frontline services for learning support – is $547million.
5. The National and ACT parties promised to reduce the Ministry employment of “full time equivalents” to 2,700 (the number before the recent Labour government). Halfway through their term the Ministry FTE is at 3,949 with a “head-count” of 4,217 employees (which does not include teachers).
There are HUGE saving available here as so much money is wasted on a completely disfunctional Ministry.
It should also be noted that the oversight of the MOE by the Minister and State Services has not been able to appoint a new Secretary for Education despite the old one walking out the door in October 2024. Ellen MR has just been re-appointed as the “acting” Secretary for Education for another year. Hardly a decisive desion by Minister Standford who has been playing favourites on her emails. Very little has changed at the higest levels of the Ministry of Education.
6. Funding to improve attendance is: $34,000,000 / 20,500,000,000 -= 0.17% of the education spend. Attendance and the 10,000 children enrolled nowhere are the biggest problems for our system.
7. The failing Charter School roll-out is only $123,000,000 – $30,000,000 on the Charter School Agency – both over four years = 0.12% of the education spend. Not a chance of being “game-changing”.
Justine Mahon – lead of the CS Authorisation Board has finally admitted that a HUGE part if their decisions for new CSs was to be “cost effective” as they only had $10million to spend in the first 18 months. They will have a tiny amount to spend until the end of 2026.
8. In term 4 of 2024 the overall attendance by school students in NZ was 58.1%. This is marginally up on T4 2023 but it was 64.7 in 2021.
For Maori the full attendance figure was 44.1%.
For Pasifika the full attendance figure was 42.4%.
It makes very little difference to improve curriculum if the children who need that the most are not there.
Erice Standford has an education system that is on fire and is pointing the hose at the building next door.
Alwyn Poole, a well-known figure in the New Zealand education system, he founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. This article was published HERE
2. 31.3% of the public sector work-force is for education (150,800 employees).
3. This is all paid for by taxpayers.
4. The Ministry of Education budget – after excluding property (where they are known to be incompetent) and frontline services for learning support – is $547million.
5. The National and ACT parties promised to reduce the Ministry employment of “full time equivalents” to 2,700 (the number before the recent Labour government). Halfway through their term the Ministry FTE is at 3,949 with a “head-count” of 4,217 employees (which does not include teachers).
There are HUGE saving available here as so much money is wasted on a completely disfunctional Ministry.
It should also be noted that the oversight of the MOE by the Minister and State Services has not been able to appoint a new Secretary for Education despite the old one walking out the door in October 2024. Ellen MR has just been re-appointed as the “acting” Secretary for Education for another year. Hardly a decisive desion by Minister Standford who has been playing favourites on her emails. Very little has changed at the higest levels of the Ministry of Education.
6. Funding to improve attendance is: $34,000,000 / 20,500,000,000 -= 0.17% of the education spend. Attendance and the 10,000 children enrolled nowhere are the biggest problems for our system.
7. The failing Charter School roll-out is only $123,000,000 – $30,000,000 on the Charter School Agency – both over four years = 0.12% of the education spend. Not a chance of being “game-changing”.
Justine Mahon – lead of the CS Authorisation Board has finally admitted that a HUGE part if their decisions for new CSs was to be “cost effective” as they only had $10million to spend in the first 18 months. They will have a tiny amount to spend until the end of 2026.
8. In term 4 of 2024 the overall attendance by school students in NZ was 58.1%. This is marginally up on T4 2023 but it was 64.7 in 2021.
For Maori the full attendance figure was 44.1%.
For Pasifika the full attendance figure was 42.4%.
It makes very little difference to improve curriculum if the children who need that the most are not there.
Erice Standford has an education system that is on fire and is pointing the hose at the building next door.
Alwyn Poole, a well-known figure in the New Zealand education system, he founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. This article was published HERE
2 comments:
Alwyn, An interesting contribution as Budget day 2025 approaches .
the July 2024 - NZ enrolment figures were 851,000 students divided by 150,800 education workforce is 5.6 students to each adult in the education workforce, as you say all paid for by the taxpayer.
The apalling attendence figures for Maori & Pacifica is a real waste of resources for the reason that the education is budgeted , available and under utilised after school is out for the day. Absolute Waste.
A compelling question is, are the 10,000 students missing on any role actually born, or a faux homebirth logged into the Government system and recorded for MSD benefit purposes ?.
You won't get anywhere with education improving until we become aware of the fact that 'so called 'progressives ' adroitly manipulate our intellectual life particularly in education . With progressive constructivism ideology children learn little and since this child centered theory has no discipline , ineffective methods and a knowledge vacuum. At one school I know of children can leave the classroom and spend time on playground equipment anytime they like. This is an illustration of the craziness of the child-centered philosophy where by a child decides for themselves what, where and how they learn. According to the theory a child knows best and is not to be dictated to by teachers or parents. Preschools are not the only ones indoctrinated fully into this constructivist nonsense. .
This is unfortunately the heritage of greatly but wrongly honoured PM Michael Fraser and academic Clarence Beeby from mid-last century. Academia refuse to acknowledge they are responsible for wrecking our once world-class education with their diabolical theories . There are thousands in academia and the ministry daily creating an endless supply of more and more absurd theoretical material to destroy our children's futures . Our taxes pay them to do this. Get rid of them ? But How?
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