Latest news with #TeHautūKahurangi
Scoop
4 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Supported Learners Carry The Burden Of Minister's Delusion
Minister of Vocational Education Penny Simmonds told the Education and Workforce Select Committee yesterday that she thinks most polytechnics are overstaffed, describing what she considers high staffing levels as 'abysmal'. Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union is pointing to cuts currently proposed to educational opportunities for supported learners as a prime example of the human cost of her delusion. Weltec and Whitieria are proposing to disestablish both of their existing Level 1 Certificates in Skills for Living; and Skills for Learning and Working for Supported Learners. Along with the four full time equivalent staff members, the greater Wellington region will lose the only programmes of this kind for learners with disabilities if the proposal goes ahead. Kaiwhakahaere | Organiser Drew Mayhem says 'there is considerable demand for both these programmes within the community. Student numbers have not decreased. These cuts are purely due to the government's inability and unwillingness to provide a level of baseline funding that will avoid further contraction of the sector before it is in a permanent death spiral.' Te Pou Ahurei | National Secretary Sandra Grey says 'the Minister uses an 18:1 student/staff ratio as a blunt instrument to measure viability but this misses the point of why we need polytechnics. If 12 disabled young people want to gain work skills in Porirua, why wouldn't we fund that? By her reckoning those 12 young people miss out on the future they deserve and 12 businesses miss out on great workers.' 'Furthermore, the Minister's Education and Training (Vocational Education and Training System) Amendment Bill, if passed, will only further destabilise the provision of vocational education, as the bill provides no clarity on what the future of the sector looks like beyond closures and possible privatisation. New Zealanders deserve better. They were promised regional autonomy but instead are having our tertiary providers hollowed out from within.' To have your say on the Bill, click here for the TEU's submission guide, and here to make your submission by midnight tonight.
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Budget 2025 – A Fiscal Hole Filled By Taking From The Most Vulnerable
Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union warns that this year's budget doesn't contain enough new money to keep the lights on. Te Pou Ahurei | National Secretary Sandra Grey says 'the funding commitments made, even in the STEM subjects and those described by the ministers as 'workforce demand areas', fail to cover rising costs in the sector.' 'The shortfall of new money will be met by job cuts, increased student fees, and propping up the system by hoping more international students will come.' 'This is another example of a government that has created a fiscal hole, filling it by taking from the most vulnerable. They have done it to Māori by cancelling Whānau Ora contracts, they have done it to women by cancelling pay equity and now they are doing it to young people by making education unaffordable, and defunding subjects like arts and the humanities.' 'Instead of showing leadership by investing money in our future workforce, they would rather give tax breaks to landlords and tobacco companies.' Craig Marshall, an Associate Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka | The University of Otago, says 'it's regrettable that this should have happened and it illustrates a failure to understand what a proper education system is.' 'For funding on STEM to almost match inflation is beneficial but most universities would be looking at ways of ensuring that their humanities programes remain viable. If you don't know the value of what people want and how they intend to use it then the thing has little value. Humanities tell us about the way people think, which is something we also need to know.'
Scoop
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
New Bill Gives Minister Power To Keep Making It Up As She Goes
Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union notes yet another development in the ongoing saga of Aotearoa's vocational education and training network that contributes nothing to stability or certainty to staff or students in the sector. The Education and Training (Vocational Education and Training System) Amendment Bill was introduced into Parliament yesterday and anyone who was hoping it would provide new information on how the new system would be structured was left disappointed. Te Pou Ahurei | National Secretary Sandra Grey sees no plan 'apart from giving the Minister the power to keep making up the plan as she goes along. There's still no indication of which polytechnics will stand alone, which will merge and which will be federated – the bill says all of that will be at the discretion of the Minister.' 'This legislation contributes nothing to the financial 'viability' of or the quality of education within the system or any individual or federated providers. It provides no certainty to our members, who still have jobs in depleted and neglected institutions, and have been scared of losing their jobs for longer than they can remember.' 'Once again Penny Simmonds continues the long tradition of successive governments rearranging the deckchairs and changing some names without addressing the underlying problem.' 'For the umpteenth time – our sector doesn't have a structural problem, it has a funding problem.'
Scoop
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Brooke Van Velden's Mother's Day Present Sets Gender Equity Back 53 Years
Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union condemns today's move by the National-led government to gut the Equal Pay Act. The proposed changes will halt all current pay equity claims, cause them to be restarted under very restrictive and unreasonable criteria, and waste years of work by employers and unions who in many cases have been working together to seek justice for some of Aotearoa's lowest paid workers – all without due parliamentary process. Te Pou Ahurei | National Secretary Sandra Grey says 'this is discrimination at its worst and will set gender equity back 53 years to when the Equal Pay Act was passed.' 'Countless union women have fought long and hard for many years to achieve equal rights and equal pay for work of equal value in the workplace and this government is making a mockery of all that mahi.' 'This is another shameful example of workers paying the price for unnecessary tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the already well off. This time it comes at the particular expense of women being paid fairly, and it clearly demonstrates this government's lack of respect both for justice and for women.' 'Brooke Van Velden has delivered the worst possible Mother's Day present for working women – legislation that takes them and their families backwards.' Wellingtonians outraged by this move are welcome to join us for a protest at the intersection of Cobham Drive and Evans Bay Parade at 9am on 23 May. All welcome! TEU currently has two live pay equity claims for administrators and library assistants in universities. Including our two for university clerical/admin and library assistant, service workers.
