Aug 20, 2018, Stuff: School support specialists set to strike in protest of low pay and high caseloads https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/106414987/school-support-specialists-set-to-strike-in-protest-of-low-pay-and-high-caseloads Hundreds of teachers, parents and students gathered at the Church Steps on Trafalgar St, Nelson, during the nationwide teachers' strike last week. Learning support specialists will follow suit on Tuesday. Hundreds of learning support specialists will strike on Tuesday, placing more pressure on the Ministry of Education to meet the sector's demands for better pay and lighter workloads. About 850 psychologists, speech language therapists, and other special education specialists represented by the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) will rally in 18 towns and cities across the country after rejecting the ministry's pay offer…. Ministry deputy secretary Zoe Griffiths acknowledged some of those staff have "high workloads at the moment". She said the ministry is "actively working to fill vacancies in areas where there is high demand", recruiting about 100 extra specialists for high needs children…. NZEI said the Government needs to ensure specialist staff are available to the growing number of children who need them. "There aren't enough specialists for the children who need the support, and those of us in the job are pushed to our limits with extreme workloads," Byron Sanders, an NZEI negotiator for the specialists, said….
top of page
Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
bottom of page