Kura Māori will retain the staff banking allocation which is being taken from other schools in the next financial year to cover increased wages for teachers.
Staff banking, which is a 10 percent allowance for staffing above entitlement which schools can use a their discretion throughout the year, was identified as an area for cost savings as the Government looked for the $680 million needed to meet an independent arbitration panel’s recommendations for settling the secondary schools’ pay agreement.
Education Minister Jan Tinetti says there are special circumstances for kura kaupapa Māori and Māori medium education.
“We have a shortage of reo teachers and there are different ways that they use their funding within that and we want to encourage them to provide outstanding reo Māori programmes in their kura,” she says.
Other savings will come from within Ministry of Education departmental funding, deferring the Te Ao Marama and Hobsonville Point secondary school projects in the Public Private Partnership Schools Expansion Programme, and rephasing the current operating funding.
