Documented documents say that Kāhui Ako School should be “replaced”

A second leak of documents from the Ministry of Education shows that the government promoted plans for a school program of 118 million US dollars and redirect the money to support disabled learners.

The two pictures of a document on April 10, which was preserved by the Labor Party and sighted by RNZ, said Kāhui Ako “rejected Budget 2025 in effect”.

They showed a governance paper entitled “Update about the Deagering of Kahui Ako (budget sensitivity)”, which referred to a plan of 15 actions to reject the system.

“The publication of the Kāhui -Ako -Financing is crucial to fulfill the budget obligations for learning support,” says the budget.

Last month, RNZ received a separate leak that showed that the government will reduce the system in February.

The leaks came only a few weeks after the Minister of Education Erica Stanford RNZ announced that the ministry had done an excellent job, a sharp turnaround compared to the assessment with three statements that she rated the ministry for his annual report last year.

Consultant governments have tried to decide what to do with Kāhui Ako, also known as “Communities of Learning”, since they were established by a nationally managed government in 2014.

The program grouped schools and 1506 early learning centers in 1958 to work on joint problems.

A director in each group received $ 25 to $ 30,000 to lead the work of their Kāhui Ako. Teachers who worked on spreading a good practice in every school group received $ 16,000 more and teachers who worked more than $ 8,000 within schools.

The report received by RNZ in February states that the acceptance of the system would cost 39 million US dollars over two years, but would save 118 years by 2027.

Labor Education spokesman Willow-Jean Prime said that the leaks showed that people were not satisfied with the government's decision.

“If information is shared like this, which is sensitive to budget, I show that there is concerns and disillusionment about what the minister does and the lack of process in relation to what the minister does.”

Prime said the government should consult affected schools and teachers because thousands of employees were affected.

“The main problem here is that it is really unclear what the government is doing, why they are doing and what their process is and what I hear from teachers is that they are confused. In my knowledge, there was no advice with schools, but it will have a significant impact on schools and many roles.”

When asked whether she would keep the system or drop if she were Minister of Education, Prime said that she had to see the evidence and the Council, the Minister of Education Erica Stanford.

Not all teachers support Kāhui Ako, but those who supported the program said RNZ that the decision was reduced.

Members of the Pukeraki Kāhui Ako said the program should continue and they are open to discussions about how it could be improved.

Leon Van't Veen, headmaster of the Tūtira AshGrove, was disappointed that the program ended without a consultation.

“It is really disappointing and I personally feel disappointed because I have the feeling that all the mahi who have gone to date can simply be rejected at finger schnapps,” he said. “It's just a real shame that all this is done to us, not with us.”

Van't Veen said Kāhui Ako could not continue her work without government financing at the same level.

Kelly Scanlan was the early childhood representative of the Puketeraki Kāhui Ako. She said the end of the program would be bad news for the early learning centers involved.

“Just hear that, just kill you,” she said. “What will happen are 20 early childhood centers that have no provisions for professional development, everything lose everything.”

Brian Price was the main principle for both Pukeraki Kāhui Ako and the National Association for Kāhui Ako. He said the school groups had provided valuable jobs to prepare qualified teachers for further leadership roles.

“I am disappointed because these people gave their hearts and souls of education. They are passionate and committed, they were recognized by their schools and they gave a way.

“You can see that I am really disappointed because these people worked so hard.”

The educational consultant Julia Death was the first teacher to be hired for a Kāhui Ako teaching role at school, and later studied the program for her doctoral thesis. She said the program had valuable leadership experience for the teachers and opportunities for those who have filled their roles back while doing Kāhui Ako.

That would be difficult to replace.

“It is difficult to be in education anyway, and the opportunity for professional support and to be able to maintain the additional funds that went hand in hand with these options is something for which our teaching profession has declared,” she said. “My question to the minister is what she will do next.”

Dr. Death said Kahui Ako had improved the children's performance, but their general effects were never put together at the national level.

She said that the school clusters could not all work well and that the government's reasons could understand for changes.

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