With
an additional
$687 million invested in
learning, special education as well as Early Childhood Education has
received a significant rise in funding. It has also been revealed by
New Zealand Budget 2015 that the boost offered by David Seymour, Act
Party leader, for more partnership or charter schools has proved
successful as 2 new schools are set to open.
Education
Budget 2015 :
Novopay,
the challenging school pay-roll system, is set to be allocated
millions of dollars in funding. The new Budget has allotted an extra
$63 million to help and support young learners with special needs
over the coming 4 years. This will keep continuing to support
in-class teacher aide for more than 1500 children with special needs.
The programme had started back in February.
The
funding will also help to advance the ORS (Ongoing Resource Scheme)
to an additional 500 students and will fund specialists like
occupational therapists and speech-language therapists. Hekia Parata,
Minister of Education in New Zealand, said “In the case of students
with special needs, a strong education increases the chance of them
becoming more independent and better able to participate in and
contribute to the community.”
Almost
$53.3 million in extra spending in 4 four years is being invested on
the Novopay, the school pay-roll system. The federal government was
compelled to take charge and management of the pay-roll system from
Talent2, an Australian company. Peter Hughes, Secretary of Education,
predicted that making the system better resulted in spending an extra
$45 million till now. Parata claimed that the additional funding for
Novopay aimed to “complete the process of delivering an efficient
and cost effective payroll system,” and to continually improve
payroll performance.
New
& Early Childhood Schools :
A
$75 million rise has been assigned to early childhood education for
the coming 4 years and it would encourage more learners to attend for
increasing hours from an early age, said Parata. The federal
government is striving to achieve an objective to encourage more than
98 per cent of all young kids who will start school in the next year
and have already taken part in recognized early childhood education.
Furthermore, operational grants of schools will also boost by 1 per
cent at $42.3 million.
The
2015 Budget also incorporates new capital expenses of around $244
million to construct 7 new schools and Kura Kaupapa, expand 4
existing schools and construct additional 241 classrooms at current
schools. The new education investment of $687 million is partially
provided by savings of $65 million in the Ministry of Education.
Tertiary
Education :
Moreover,
in accordance with the child hardship Budget initiative of the
government, the student allowance rate for post-secondary students
with children will boost by $25 per week. It is expected that this
will benefit around 9000 families. For families with low-income,
childcare assistance will rise from $4 per hour to $5 per hour, which
will impact around 40,000 families.
What
do you think about the 2015 Budget and how will it affect education?
Feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and views with us by
commenting below. We would love to hear from you.
Source: bit.ly/1K86tyk
