New Zealand: Campaign for education support staff | WPN World People News

EI affiliate the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI Te Riu Roa), has launched a new campaign, entitled ‘Support Staff - Supporting Success in Education’.

“’Support Staff’ support children’s success in so many different ways,” said NZEI Te Riu Roa President Paul Goulter. “Supporting Success celebrates that, highlighting the role that support staff play in supporting teaching and learning every day. It is another step along the support-staff journey towards professional recognition, better resourcing, and fair and equitable pay.”

Support staff should have education union representation

“EI welcomes this new union campaign,” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen. “We wish to reaffirm that support staff should have professional status, and employment rights and terms and conditions like other education employees with comparable academic and technical qualifications and experience.”

He also acknowledged that teaching is increasingly supported by the services of a combination of professional, administrative, technical and general staff. “This is a crucial development for quality education as well as for inclusion, and support staff must have the opportunity to be affiliated and defended by education unions,” van Leeuwen said.

source: Education International