Education Vote Education funds boost

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 3

Education Vote Education funds boost

Vote Education has increased 12 per cent, but funding has been reallocated within education to meet changing priorities, the Minister of Education, Mr Lange, said yesterday. Additional funds had been provided in four fields, Mr Lange said. These are early childhood care and education, implementation of the administrative reforms, mainstreaming, and student income support. The funding for education administrative reforms would be $3B million, Mr Lange said. The Picot report had said that a “one-off” injection would be needfed for the transition tq the new system, he said. The funds provided for: ® Teaching support for principals of small State primary schools (already announced). • Costs associated with implementing changes to post-compulsory education and training. • Audit of primary and secondary school board of trustee accounts. • Two year funding to establish the National Educational Qualifications Authority. • A management information system for the new Ministry of Education. • Productivity retention payments to the Education Department and education board staff (already announced). • Establishment and operating' costs of the Education Review office. • A residual management unit to phase out the Department of Education. Mr Lange announced funding to complete the Government’s policy of mainstreaming of handicapped children. $5 million has been allocated for educating all school-age children of

psychopaedic hospitals, and a further $500,000 has been approved to provide services for severely handicapped children. Mr Lange said the $500,000 would enable an additional 25 primary teachers and 20 teacher assistants to be appointed. The additional teaching positions would enable the full staffing of all units for students who were intellectually disabled, Mr Lange said. In the tertiary area the Government announced that students would receive a $77 million increase in income support for the current academic year, bringing over all support for students to $2lB million. The Associate Minister

of Education, Mr Goff, said the increase in the student allowance was the largest single item increase in the education budget, and the largest in New Zealand’s history of State-funded student support. The increase reflected both the growing number of tertiary students and a much more generous, in-dex-linked allowance, he said. The principal of Lincoln College, and chairman of the Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, Professor Bruce Ross, said that tertiary institutions had been pleased when the higher student allowance was introduced, and that more students were attending higher education.