NZEI Te Riu Roa today cautiously welcomed the government’s newly announced, one-off support scheme for schools affected by asbestos-tainted sand but expressed concern that early childhood education, including kindergartens and not-for-profit ECEs, are excluded.
The announcement follows sustained advocacy by NZEI, which has demanded that the government take full responsibility and shoulder all associated remediation costs borne by schools and early childhood education.
“The government’s move to offer targeted support is an acknowledgment of their responsibility for this crisis of their own making. But we note that the scheme is riddled with caveats, limited in scope, and does not cover 100 per cent all testing, remediation, and associated professional costs for every affected school,” says NZEI President Ripeka Lessels.
The Ministry of Education, in its communication to affected schools and early childhood education today, said it was not offering any financial assistance for early learning services, including free kindergartens and community-based services, because they are private entities.
The Ministry also required schools to complete a survey by 17 December and explicitly said that completing the survey does not guarantee support.
“A major concern for the union is the government’s decision to exclude initial asbestos testing costs from the scope of the remediation support scheme,” says Mrs Lessels.
Ministry guidance advises only those schools facing ‘acute financial difficulty’ – defined as having working capital below 10 per cent of their annual grant – to contact their financial advisors to discuss potential reimbursement for asbestos testing costs.
“Asking schools to prove they are nearing financial collapse just so they can recover the expense of testing will delay essential safety work, particularly in our most vulnerable communities. Testing is the prerequisite to remediation; it must be covered fully and without question,” says Mrs Lessels.
“NZEI is urgently calling on the Ministry to provide comprehensive details of this support scheme, including the total available funding and the criteria for successful applications.
“The health and safety of our mokopuna, tamariki, and the dedicated professionals in our school communities must be protected.”
May Road School Principal Lynda Stuart welcomed the announcement but noted the caveats.
“The devil will certainly be in the detail,” says Mrs Stuart, citing that the school could be looking at costs of around $75,000.
“We had to pay specialists to conduct testing, removal and remediation, and also pay a significant number of extra hours for our teacher aides so that they could support our high-needs learners through the changes that were needed as we dealt with the issues.
“Until we see the details from the government, I cannot say if this is the real support that schools and early childhood education need. There are also hidden costs which we do not know about yet, such as what other furniture and equipment has been removed from buildings.”
Mrs Stuart said some schools and early childhood education centres had already closed for the year.
“So this means that the deadline of 17 December to give feedback on the extent of the costs is impractical. This will force already exhausted staff to come back to work for a process that does not guarantee support.”