NZEI Te Riu Roa - Social Infrastructure Discussion Paper

A people-centred
recovery: Prioritising
social infrastructure
for a Just Transition
out of the Covid-19
crisis.
Dis cussi on paper | A p ril 2 02 0 | N Z E I Te R iu Ro a
The Government is planning significant public investment in “shovel-

ready” physical infrastructure projects to create jobs, stimulate the
economy and address the country’s infrastructure deficit as we look
to recover from the Covid-19 crisis. NZEI Te Riu Roa welcomes this
investment. But if we want to have a truly people-centred and Just
Transition out of the Covid-19 crisis, it is vital we also invest in our social
infrastructure – including health, the arts, and of course our education
system.
We welcome the Prime Minister’s invitation to submit our view on where

investment in social infrastructure should be directed.
The social and economic wellbeing of Aotearoa’s youngest citizens is a

hugely important issue for our post-Covid-19 recovery. We support the
Prime Minister’s goal to make New Zealand the best place in the world to
be a child. We urge the Government to continue to put tamariki and their
learning at the centre of every aspect of the recovery plan.
Now is our opportunity as a nation to create a world class, inclusive

public education system that will meet the needs of our tamariki, their
parents and whānau in the post-Covid-19 recovery environment – and
one that will give them the resilience to cope with future challenges to
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come. Investing in this social infrastructure will not only create jobs and
stimulate the economy, but will pay countless other social and economic
dividends in the coming decades.
Transiting out of the Covid-19 crisis will need the support of a dynamic,
modern education system. Life after Covid-19 will be different. When
we get there, we don’t have to continue to live with the unacceptable
inequalities of our old ‘normal’. We have the opportunity – and the
responsibility – to create a new and better Aotearoa society with an
education system that meets the needs of everybody.
Our view is that any social infrastructure investment should adopt a Māori
first approach – Moku te Ao. Adopting this approach is to ensure that
investment is consistent with the principles of Te Tiriti and the obligations
of the parties.
We believe that education infrastructure should prioritise investment

in the following areas. We see this investment is consistent with what
NZ needs in the immediate recovery phase but ongoing. It also draws
largely on commitments already made or indicated and hence is largely
consistent with government policy. However there is now an urgency in
response and as a result we ask for a reprioritisation of both policy and
resourcing.
The opportunities posed by the crisis allow for bold initiatives that
will quicken the pace to achieve a quality public NZ education system
that delivers for all, at all levels while being job rich and which ensures
opportunities for the low paid.
1 B u i l d i n g t h e E d u c a t i o n Wo r k f o r c e
• Addressing the inequity in resourcing across the system

including reprioritising the resourcing into primary;
• Immediate steps to address the teacher shortage;
• Increasing the investment in learning support to meet the

acknowledged mental health challenges posed by the Covid
crisis as well as the need to address the increasing challenges
of the pre Covid situation;
• Build a qualified para professional support workforce to

support teaching and learning.
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2 Building a Quality Public Early Childhood Education
System
• Develop and implement a staged plan for public provision

of ECE;
• A 100% qualified ECE teacher workforce;
• A teaching workforce that is centrally funded;
• A focus on resourcing quality of teaching and learning rather

than quantity (participation).
Our approach acknowledges the considerable investment in physical

infrastructure projects in education such as building upgrades and new
schools, which we welcome.
A Māori-first approach
While each item on this list represents an opportunity to invest in the
future of our education system, they also represent an opportunity to
do things differently.
Successive governments have advocated the necessity to provide

increased funding to Māori in an effort to make Aotearoa society more
equitable. But inequality and inequity remains and, unfortunately, stems
directly from the education system. Limited school achievement leads to
limited employment opportunities; limited employment leads to limited
life chances for whānau. Uplifting Māori starts with our education system.
We encourage the Government to take a Māori-first approach in taking

up, engaging with, and implementing any of the recommendations below
– prioritising Māori thinking, learning and practice. Not only because
‘what is good for Māori is good for everyone’, but because a Māori-
first approach is the only way we can honour Te Tiriti while creating an
education system that is uniquely ours.
p age 3
Priority education investment
for the Covid-19 Just Transition
A B u i l d i n g t h e E d u c a t i o n Wo r k f o r c e
The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its

people. Our education system needs quality teaching to support learners
in the immediate post-Covid-19 environment. It is particularly critical that
our youngest citizens get teaching from qualified staff who are trained to
know how to meet their learning and pastoral needs.
There is a need to quickly remedy the resourcing gap between primary

and secondary as identified in the Tomorrows Schools Task Force
report Our Schooling Futures: Stronger Together and implement its
recommendations. To do so is to enable primary schools to not just meet
the Just Transition challenges out of Covid but to secure a quality public
education system.
Teacher shortages in schools and ECE have been persistent over many
years. Solving these shortages long term ultimately relies on making the
profession attractive and sustainable, but alongside this, the Covid-19
recovery presents a unique opportunity to attract a wide variety of New
Zealanders into the profession through incentivised retraining.
The Government should place a greater value on te reo Māori so

that there are incentives for speakers to gain employment within the
education system.
Women have historically borne – and will continue to bear – the burden
of both work and caring roles in many essential services, including
education. We will need their contributions, and now is the time to ensure
low paid women in particular are fairly recognised and rewarded for their
skills and expertise.
Experience from Christchurch shows the enormous mental health

challenges following a crisis. The education sector needs to draw on
that experience and resource for the inevitable demands.
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Smaller class and group sizes make a significant difference to the quality
of teaching and learning across schools and ECE. Research shows that
school students in smaller classes are more likely to be attentive and
participate in learning, achieving greater success at school as a result.
In early childhood settings, the “bubbles” and larger space requirements
under Level 3 are the non-Covid norm in many other countries, because
smaller group sizes and better child to teacher ratios mean children are
safer, less stressed, and are able to have higher quality interactions. This
leads to better learning and developmental outcomes.
Immediate response actions
1. Guarantee funding so that all staff and relievers across ECE and
schools continue to be paid in full for the remainder of 2020,
and so that ECE providers can make decisions based on health
and safety, not their commercial viability.
2. Moving all of the resourcing priorities arising from the

Tomorrows Schools Task Force Recommendation 7 (Improving
Resourcing) to Priority A (within 18-24 months).
3. Increase funding for specialist Learning Support staffing.
4. Ensure funding and regulation enables reduced ratios and

smaller group/class sizes across schools and centres to ensure
safer physical distancing throughout the Covid-19 crisis.
5. Incentivise entry into teaching with voluntary bonding for all

initial teacher education and fees-free training for teaching
students from the second semester of 2020
Initial recovery actions
1. Ensure all teacher aides – who support learners facing the

greatest challenges – are employed permanently, paid centrally,
are on pay rates adjusted for pay equity and have career
pathways that enhance teaching and learning.
2. Rapidly progress pay equity for all other school support staff.
3. Fund a pathway to pay parity for ECE teachers.
4. Re-introduce the target of 100% qualified teachers in ECE

by 2023.
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5. Increase investment in all aspects of Learning Support,
including the rollout of tranche two of Learning Support
Coordinators across all schools and ECE services.
6. Fund staffing for smaller class sizes in schools.
B Building a Quality Public Early Childhood

Education System
More than 93% of children under 5 in Aotearoa participate regularly in

early childhood education, but our current highly privatised market model
of ECE – based on child occupancy rates and delivered through atomised
services operating in a highly competitive market – is not the best way to
deliver the best educational and developmental outcomes.
The model’s inequities and deficiencies have been further highlighted by

the Covid-19 crisis. A majority of our nation’s ECE services would have
fallen over without ongoing public funding (by way of a continuation of
regular ECE funding and the Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme). This risk
has not diminished and will grow as unemployment lifts.
While compulsory sector staff have largely been supported through the
crisis by their schools and state funding, support and pay for ECE staff
has been hugely inconsistent across the country.
The Covid-19 crisis presents a unique opportunity to fast track turning the
tide on privatisation and through an effective plan to implement staged
change towards greater public provision of ECE.
Initial recovery actions
1. Develop and implement a staged plan for public provision and

funding of ECE.
2. Develop an integration model with appropriate legislative

instruments to move ECE services who voluntarily transition
from private to public (similar to that used with special
character schools in the compulsory sector).
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3. Ensure planned provision of a public ECE network, integrated
with schooling and kura where possible, with hubs of
kindergartens and other willing community services.
4. Permanently restore maximum numbers in ECE centres to 75

from the current 150 and introduce ratios of 1:3 for under-2s.
5. Incentivise ECE services to be a part of a quality public system

of provision by increasing the funding band for public centres
with 100% qualified teachers, establishing parity in the sector
through a Fair Pay Agreement and collective agreements,
centrally funding salaries for services that have opted into
public provision and placing conditions on the receipt of all
public funding (across the sector) to ensure it is used solely for
the purposes of delivering high quality teaching and learning.
p age 7

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What are the main points being made about investing in education?

What are the main points being made about investing in education?

What proposals are made regarding the education workforce?

What proposals are made regarding the education workforce?

A people-centred

The Government is planning significant public investment in “shovel-

We welcome the Prime Minister’s invitation to submit our view on where

The social and economic wellbeing of Aotearoa’s youngest citizens is a

Now is our opportunity as a nation to create a world class, inclusive

We believe that education infrastructure should prioritise investment

• Addressing the inequity in resourcing across the system

• Immediate steps to address the teacher shortage;

• Increasing the investment in learning support to meet the

• Build a qualified para professional support workforce to

• Develop and implement a staged plan for public provision

• A 100% qualified ECE teacher workforce;

• A teaching workforce that is centrally funded;

• A focus on resourcing quality of teaching and learning rather

Our approach acknowledges the considerable investment in physical

Successive governments have advocated the necessity to provide

We encourage the Government to take a Māori-first approach in taking

The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its

There is a need to quickly remedy the resourcing gap between primary

The Government should place a greater value on te reo Māori so

Experience from Christchurch shows the enormous mental health

Immediate response actions

2. Moving all of the resourcing priorities arising from the

3. Increase funding for specialist Learning Support staffing.

4. Ensure funding and regulation enables reduced ratios and

5. Incentivise entry into teaching with voluntary bonding for all

Initial recovery actions

1. Ensure all teacher aides – who support learners facing the

3. Fund a pathway to pay parity for ECE teachers.

4. Re-introduce the target of 100% qualified teachers in ECE

6. Fund staffing for smaller class sizes in schools.

B Building a Quality Public Early Childhood

More than 93% of children under 5 in Aotearoa participate regularly in

The model’s inequities and deficiencies have been further highlighted by

Initial recovery actions

1. Develop and implement a staged plan for public provision and

2. Develop an integration model with appropriate legislative

4. Permanently restore maximum numbers in ECE centres to 75

5. Incentivise ECE services to be a part of a quality public system

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