The Crisis in Our Classrooms
Across our country, we face a real crisis. Teachers are overstretched and burnt out, trying to meet the needs of every child in their classroom while facing immense pressure to make changes to their own practice without the time to properly do so.
Increasing Needs
Our classrooms are not what they were even ten years ago. Children entering our schools often have much higher needs than we have ever seen before. While I could list a range of reasons behind this upsurge in needs, that is not the point of this post. Rather, the point is to make it clear that classrooms, with just one teacher and 20-30 children, are quickly becoming untenable.
What we would have looked at as 'average' for a new entrant now stands out. Those that are independent, able to focus for a short period of time, and able to be in a classroom and feel a sense of safety are now in the minority. I feel lucky (though it is hard work, not luck really) to be 'ready' for these children, to have a well-established lens that understands child development and is able to provide an environment where all children can grow at their own pace. However, even we struggle; to put it in colloquial terms, 'the needs are out the gate.' Thank goodness for our fence, or half our new entrant class would quite literally be out the gate.
Financial Strain and Government Promises
I have a long-established sense of understanding that schools need to be ready for children, and this has served us well. We understand that children will grow and progress at their own rate, and often by Year 4, the solid foundations they have laid really start to pay off. However, we have drained ourselves financially creating an environment where this is possible, investing in people first, and even we are drowning under the current need.
Yet, we currently have a government that loudly claims how much they are doing for our schools, how much difference they are making for learning support. They make announcements about how much money they are investing in maths and literacy, making it sound like a very real, meaningful investment. Yes, it sounds great: an LSC for all schools, literacy support, and maths support, much-needed staffing. These announcements are made in classrooms that certainly don't look like the majority of classrooms around New Zealand, tiny numbers and not a chair being thrown in sight.
The Reality Behind the Announcements
But what does all this 'big talk' mean? In reality, many schools will wait until 2027 for an LSC, and even then, it may just be a day a week (we are lucky, we get two days a week). Literacy support has to be matched, similar to the old reading recovery model. For us, it means 0.3 (a day and a half spread over the week) matched by 0.3 that we cannot really afford, but matched because the need is very real. This year, we were also able to apply for maths support. I said we were unable to match and was grateful to get 0.1 (half a day over the week). This support is supposed to help those children from Year 1-6 in our school progress in maths. No matter how grateful I am, half an hour a day is not going to stretch to many children. We are lucky; most children do really well in maths because of good teaching, but at least twenty, if not more, would really benefit from targeted support. Who gets it?
The announcements are made in such a way that we are made to feel guilty for not being grateful, the last announcement on property spending is a great example of that. All schools will get money to fast track property projects, to complete important work on infrastructure. Fantastic! Now I will happily take the money, but for our school that looks like $7500, in a school that is almost 150 year old I am not sure how far that money is supposed to go. Again, this is more about the glory of the announcement then the reality of the difference it will make.
I am grateful for any investment of money, but everything right now is just a drop in the ocean.
What Schools Truly Need
This government is the government of announcements. But it is actually time to put the money where their mouths are. To actually make a difference, every class needs another adult in the form of a teacher aide. To really make a difference to children that need learning support, every school needs to be staffed with at least one teacher above allocation; this person would then be LSC and provide Tier 3 learning support. We don't need dribs and drabs of funding that, for some schools, will simply be absorbed and will not even get close to actually helping the children that desperately need it. In larger schools, this allocation would need to be higher.
The Urgency of Permanent Solutions
To make things worse, when making these announcements, they don't happen to tell everyone that this literacy and maths support is fixed-term; it isn't even a permanent allocation. It is hard enough to find good people to work in permanent jobs, let alone take on fixed-term positions.
Right now, our system needs real action, not soundbites, but action that prioritises people, that actually allows teachers to do our jobs.
Right now, all I hear are announcements that are politically motivated and lacking any real understanding of what we face every day. Not only that, teachers are made to sound greedy, lazy and incompetent just about every day in the media, supported by a narrative that our government perpetuates.
When Is Enough, Enough?
There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, a hole.
Then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, mend it.
With what shall I mend it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
With what shall I mend it, dear Liza, with what?
With straw, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With straw, dear Henry, dear Henry, with straw.
The straw is too long, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The straw is too long, dear Liza, too long.
Then cut it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then cut it, dear Henry, dear Henry, cut it.
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, with what?
With a knife, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With a knife, dear Henry, dear Henry, a knife.
The knife is too dull, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The knife is too dull, dear Liza, too dull.
Then sharpen it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then sharpen it, dear Henry, dear Henry, sharpen it.
With what shall I sharpen it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
With what shall I sharpen it, dear Liza, with what?
With a stone, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With a stone, dear Henry, dear Henry, a stone.
The stone is too dry, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The stone is too dry, dear Liza, too dry.
Then wet it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then wet it, dear Henry, dear Henry, wet it.
With what shall I wet it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
With what shall I wet it, dear Liza, with what?
With water, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With water, dear Henry, dear Henry, with water.
In what shall I fetch it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
In what shall I fetch it, dear Liza, in what?
In a bucket, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
In a bucket, dear Henry, dear Henry, in a bucket.
But there's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, a hole.
Over the past years, I have posted and blogged about the lack of support and our education system in crisis, but when is enough enough? I know for many educators that time is coming much closer, but surely it won't take educators walking away to make the difference?
We are here for the children, we hold on for the children, we stretch ourselves thin for the children, but why must our government continue to test where the breaking point is, or does the bottom have to fall out of the bucket first for them to care?
