The Government has cut valuable education programmes like night classes and the enviro schools programme because it says it wants to use those funds for improving literacy and numeracy.
Imagine how surprised Literacy Waikato was when that same Government cut its funding last month.
When I took Labour leader Phil Goff to meet with the Hamilton-based literacy service recently, they were still perplexed about how the Government rhetoric could be so misleading.
With 25 part-time paid tutors and 35 volunteer tutors all trained to high professional standards, they offer highly-effective literacy classes for adults in our community. They regularly see lives turned around and opportunities opened up through the work they do.
And yet, the Government has cut the funding to its parent organisation, Literacy Aotearoa, by $600,000. The impact on Literacy Waikato could be in the order of $100,000 less funding at a time when the Government is supposed to be prioritising literacy.
I believe that night classes involving everything from cooking through to parenting classes do contribute to better literacy and numeracy.
Phil Goff and I also visited Hamilton East Primary School to see their fantastic environmental programme. It certainly taught literacy and numeracy skills in a hands-on practical way. The children showed an enthusiasm for their projects that would put most maths lessons to shame. And yet, the Government has pulled the funding from the Hamilton-based unit that supports schools across New Zealand to develop and sustain these excellent programmes.
It just doesn’t add up.
Is the Government just using the “literacy and numeracy” line as an excuse to make severe and short-sighted cuts across our precious education system? If the funding from those cuts is supposed to be going into literacy, then why is that funding being cut too?
And why do private schools deserve an increase in funding at the same time as the vast majority of ordinary New Zealanders have their education programmes cut?
Just don’t get me started on how short-sighted it is for the Government to force hundreds of people in Hamilton onto the unemployment benefit instead of giving them the opportunity to further their education at the University of Waikato or Wintec by capping the student numbers.
In just 10 months, this Government has our education system in a state of turmoil.
