Politics Live Blog - April 15-21

More than one in 10 workers at the Ministry of Education will lose their jobs, under a planned restructure.

The Public Service Association says front line roles, with workers across the country, will be cut.

The ministry proposed culling 565 roles, from its workforce of 4300 people. The proposal equated to 12% of Ministry of Education roles being disestablished.

"This plan includes scrapping 87 jobs in the regions - people doing work including supporting children with disabilities, migrant and refugee children, advising schools on accessing speech and language therapy, lifting student achievement and helping ensure schools run smoothly," said PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons.

She said other "frontline" roles, including staff who supported learners with disabilities, were being cut.

The majority of the cuts have come from the operations and
integration team, and the ministry's Curriculum Centre. Between those two teams, more than 300 roles were being cut.

A further six roles were being cut from Ka Ora, Ka Ako, the free school lunches team.

Secretary for Education Iona Holsted denied this proposal would cut frontline services.

   

“We are disappointed at the PSA’s mischaracterisation," she said.

 

"Our  proposed changes have been designed to avoid impacts on direct services to children, teachers, and principals."

The 565 roles at the Ministry of Education represented the largest layoff proposal, so far, across the Government's reprioritisation programme.