Education is going backwards under Labour and things will only get worse if the Government cuts funding for frontline teachers, National’s Education Spokesperson Erica Stanford says.

“Labour has overseen a shocking decline in achievement and attendance. But rather than do something to turn this around, this Government wants to cut funding for senior teacher roles within Communities of Learning/Kāhui Ako.

“Literacy and numeracy achievement rates are plummeting – kids aren’t being taught to read and write. In Term 1 this year only 46 per cent of kids attended school regularly and 100,000 kids were chronically truant, meaning they missed at least three in every 10 school days.

“At the same time that Labour wants to cut funding for senior teachers on the frontline, this Government has added over 10,000 bureaucrats to the public service and the number of Ministry of Education staff earning over $120,000 has almost tripled to 955.

“Principals say the senior teacher roles are ‘central to our strategy to improve student outcomes’ and ‘highly valued’. But in typical Labour fashion, they’d rather prioritise bureaucrats in Wellington.

“Jacinda Ardern’s Government is failing a generation of kids. That’s not just a social failure – it’s a future economic crisis.”