The Post Primary Teachers' Association say Ministry of Education job cuts will heap more pressure onto "overworked" schools and teachers to deliver NCEA outcomes.
More than 1400 public sector roles have already been cut as part of the Government's cost-saving measures, with "significant" job losses expected to be announced at a Ministry of Education meeting with staff today.
Post Primary Teachers' Association's (PPTA) Chris Abercrombie told Breakfast it was unclear exactly how many jobs would be axed, but suggested the Ministry of Education's curriculum centre and school lunch programme staff could be affected.
He said frontline staff and teachers working in schools will likely not be directly affected by the cuts, however what he called "frontline services" in the form of curriculum areas and NCEA change programme will be affected.
"Delivering NCEA change, delivering curriculum, delivering lunch in schools. These are frontline in my opinion and [cuts] shouldn't be happening in that area."
Introduced in 2019 by the previous Labour government, the free school lunch programme currently offers meals to 230,000 students in about 1000 disadvantaged schools.
Abercrombie said 50% of the workforce delivering the lunch in schools programme could be facing job losses.
"I think there's absolutely room to make savings in the lunches programme, but I visit a number of schools and the schools are so proud of their lunch programmes."
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has previously confirmed the programme itself is under review and is likely to be cut in the Budget.
Abercrombie argues there is "no point" in the Government reviewing the lunch in schools programme if it has already decided to cut 50% of the workforce delivering it.
"There's absolutely room to, you know, make cuts. But not the 50% that the minister is talking about and to still be able to deliver that programme."
He said NCEA implementation leaders are part of the workforce expected to be cut, which would "pushback" the NCEA changes workload onto schools and teachers.
"We've got the Ministry of Advisory Group that wants to make changes to the Maths and English curriculum, they've got the rebalancing of the Aotearoa histories curriculum. They want to do this, but they seem to be cutting the curriculum workforce.
"The workforce needs to be doing it. They'll need to ramp it up in [about] 20 months time to be able to hit the timelines. So it just seems like they're really putting the cart before the horse in this area," said Abercrombie.
He said the association have a "real concern" that the Government will not be able to meet its "really ambitious" NCEA curriculum targets in areas such as numeracy and literacy if these cuts are made.
Abercrombie said the cuts could impact "already overworked" schools and teachers who would have to be the ones delivering the NCEA changes.
"If they're cutting the workforce for curriculum and NCEA changs, then those changes still have to happen. So who's gonna do the work? It's gonna have to be the schools."
MOE responds
In a statement, the Ministry of Education said proposals and consultation processes are "not yet finalised".
"This is a complex process that has required time. Our proposed changes have been designed to avoid impacts on direct services to children, teachers, and principals/leaders," said MOE's corporate leader Zoe Griffiths.
She said a staggered approach has been taken to meeting the Government's savings targets.
"We are consulting with people who may be impacted or affected by the proposals, and their representatives."
Griffiths said there are other parts of the ministry yet to be engaged in the process as their change proposals are "still being developed".
She said the Government has been clear that operational decisions on meeting the required savings targets is the responsibility of each agency and that MOE is "working with the Government on delivering its priorities".
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