Leanne Otene: Principals' Federation President on the funding for maths intervention teachers in Budget 2025

The Principals' Federation is unsure where specialist teachers in maths will come from as schools grapple with staff shortages. 

The Government's injecting $100 million into maths education over four years, as part of Budget 2025. 

More than half the money will go into 143 new full-time maths intervention teachers.   

President Leanne Otene told Mike Hosking we don't have enough teachers as it is. 

She says to take that number out of the school system and get them to deliver this programme won't solve the problem in the long run. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So more resource being parted into schools this time. Are
math's got one hundred million over four years, one hundred
and forty three maths intervention teachers. They'll help primary school
kids who are struggling from next year to every child
will have their math's ability checked in the first couple
of years of schooling. Now, the Principal's Federation National President
Lee is with us Land Morning Morning. Mike hi Ka, Yeah,
well thank you. You can't argue the government and the

(00:21):
Minister Stamford isn't working hard to write the ship. Is
that fair?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah? Absolutely, I mean she wants exactly the same as principles,
and that is that every young person thrives in school.
So you know, any investment into supporting children who are
struggling at schools is a good thing.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Do teachers fix maths issues?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
They definitely can if they're given the support that they need.
And you know, this funding injection into maths is you know,
it's a start. But what we need is to make
sure that every single one of our teachers is an
expert of teaching on maths. And that's not a dressing
this in the latest now it is not.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Which was my next question. If you do need specialists?
What's that say about what we're training as generalists? And
do we need to do something about that?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, you're absolutely right. Every single teacher needs to be
a math specialist, and unfortunately, you know, we do not
have the professional developments that we desperately need for all
of our teachers. And it starts with training of course,
you know, when they were training to be teachers, but
it then continues on when they're at school, I mean
when they're working. So we really need to make sure

(01:35):
that the money that is invested in helping our students
and our schools is invested in teachers too, and that
they have the professional development they need to up the
guild to be able to deliver.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Where are we getting all these teachers from? Are we
growing them or importing them?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well that's the problem, isn't it. We don't have enough
teachers as it is, So you know, to take one
hundred and forty three I think it is out of
our school system and make them the experts then deliver.
You know, basically, a program where you withdraw children from
the classroom is not going to solve our problem in
the long run.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
No, No, it's interesting, is now I don't know how
they're going to do it. Next time I get Erica on,
I'll talk to her about it. Lee, I appreciate it.
New Zealand Principles Federation National President Leaning which brings me
to Rod, who's with us after eight thirty. I just
cannot wait to talk to them. What they're trying to
do with immigration in Britain is you will in the
rest time area no longer be able to import somebody
into the country, so you'll need to have a locally grown,

(02:30):
trained person to work in the rest time area. Now,
if we did that in this country, whether it be teachers, nurses,
or restaurant, people would collapse literally overnight. For more from
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