NZEI Te Riu Roa is welcoming the Government’s commitment of additional counselling and advice services for educators in
early learning services and schools, especially in the current Covid environment.
NZEI Te Riu Roa President, Liam Rutherford, says educators will greatly benefit from further access to counselling
services and a support network.
“Educators have worked extremely hard to support students and their learning through this difficult year. We know that
teacher workload and a lack of resourcing was already a huge strain for educators, but the adjustments they’ve had to
make due to Covid has further compounded these stress levels.”
“While we welcome the extra funding, we know that to truly address teacher wellbeing we need to fix the underlying
causes of stress – which are workload and resourcing for the sector.”
The package announced today includes funding for additional EAP advice and workshops for educators, a focus on regions
further impacted by Covid-19, funding for an online wellbeing hub for educators as well as funding solely for the Māori
education workforce in Māori medium educational settings.