WELLINGTON - The Government is taking a hard line against schools that may have to cut staff after the abolition of bulk-funding, saying it is prepared only to guarantee the jobs of teachers hired before June 1998.
Education Minister Trevor Mallard said yesterday that even those jobs would be secure only if the school could show a genuine effort to trim staff numbers.
Bulk-funded schools had two years' warning that a Labour Government would abolish the scheme, he said.
Labour wrote to every school in the country while it was in opposition, warning that bulk-funding would be abolished if it gained power.
"I am not willing to bail out schools that continued to hire permanent staff without thinking about how they would fund those positions in the future," Mr Mallard said.
Some bulk-funded schools may lose money once the scheme is abolished because funding will be spread more evenly across all schools.
Labour and Alliance say National bribed schools to enter bulk-funding by offering them extra money, allowing them to hire more staff than they might normally be entitled to under traditional arrangements.
Jobs of teachers hired before his letter to schools would be secure, Mr Mallard said.
"If a school loses funds under the new formula and cannot afford to pay that teacher, the Government will make funds available to ensure he or she does not have to be made redundant.
"This will only apply where schools have made every attempt - for example, through attrition - to get those permanent over-entitlement staff under the line."
Funding would be attached to the individual rather than the position, however, so would disappear once that teacher left.
- NZPA
Govt waves stick at schools slow to readjust staff levels
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