A year after literacy programme was cut, Hawke’s Bay and Tararua educators say permanent jobs have not come
Former Central Hawke’s Bay RT Lit teacher Hayley Henderson says uncertainty remains for specialist literacy teachers and the students they once supported. Photo / Rafaella Melo
A year after a specialist literacy teaching programme was cut from schools, Hawke’s Bay and Tararua educators say permanent job opportunities they were promised never eventuated.
They claim the students with dyslexia and learning difficulties that they once supported are still missing out.
The Government’s latest Budget announcement includes more than $131 million in new literacy and maths support for schools nationwide.
Last year, the Government cut 109 Resource Teachers of Literacy (RT Lit) positions across New Zealand, including five specialists supporting more than 200 students across Hawke’s Bay schools.
Under the previous model, RT Lit specialists worked across multiple schools supporting both teachers and students with complex literacy needs, while the current system focuses on building structured literacy expertise within individual schools through targeted intervention programmes.
Ministry of Education general manager Antony Harvey said funding from the former RT Lit service had been reinvested to “build in-school expertise and scale frontline services” through structured literacy approaches.
Harvey said staffing for structured literacy interventions had increased nationally to 349 full-time teacher equivalents across 1248 schools for 2026.
“This is a more nationally consistent, efficient, and equitable model of literacy staffing delivery,” he said.
Harvey said about 75% of former RT Lit teachers nationwide were still employed by schools in teaching roles.
He said the ministry was monitoring the effectiveness of the new model through school data and an independent evaluation.
Former Central Hawke’s Bay RT Lit teacher Hayley Henderson said she was working on a fixed-term contract at a Central Hawke’s Bay school, but was again facing uncertainty with the contract coming to an end.
“There have not been any permanent opportunities for us,” she told Hawke’s Bay Today.
“One of the schools that I was in as an RT Lit offered me this position, and they could only give me four days doing literacy, because that’s all the funding they’ve got.”
The role, however, differs from the work she previously carried out as an RT Lit specialist.
“One day a week, I am a release teacher in a classroom, and the other four days I’m their literacy support person ... working with children instead of working with teachers and children like I was before,” Henderson said.
“Before, I could work with teachers, upskill them, which of course made a lot of change for all the children in the class.”
Henderson said the educators were told there would be opportunities available after the cuts.
“There have been fixed-term, short-term ones, but before we had a permanent contract. There has not been anything permanent offered,” she said.
“There’s still a lot of uncertainty about the future, both for me and for the students.”
Former RT Lit teacher and former national executive member Jenny Martin, who previously supported 18 schools across the Tararua District, including Dannevirke, said many of the concerns teachers raised before the cuts had since become reality.
“We were told by Erica Stanford that there would be lots of job opportunities for us,” Martin said.
“But it has not been like that at all.”
She said the options offered after the RT Lit roles were disestablished were mainly redeployment into short‑term project roles, rather than permanent positions.
Martin said many former RT Lit teachers had struggled to find permanent work despite years of specialist training and experience.
“Some are working as teacher aides, some are working part-time, some are working as relievers, some are doing private tutoring, and some have just left the education sector altogether,” she said.
“These jobs and roles we were promised by the minister just did not eventuate.”
Martin said RT Lit teachers were highly specialised educators, most holding postgraduate qualifications in literacy, with some also having master’s degrees or doctorates.
She said much of the training had originally been funded by the Ministry of Education.
“It is taxpayers’ money that trained us in the first place,” Martin said.
“All of that training and expertise has just gone to waste.”
Martin said while some schools had successfully implemented the Government’s new structured literacy model, many were still struggling to establish tiered literacy support systems.
“There’s so much confusion in schools ... And I feel so sorry for these students, they’re really missing out.”
She said many students who previously received free specialist RT Lit support were now being referred to private tutors, creating “inequity” between families who could afford extra help and those who could not.
“The more wealthy families can afford private tuition, and then you’ve got the families who are from low socioeconomic groups, particularly Māori, Pasifika, they can’t afford it,” Martin said.
“They are falling further and further behind because the schools are struggling to address their learning needs.”
The Government’s new Budget 2026 literacy package includes funding for structured literacy programmes, workbooks, digital writing tools, literacy checks and additional maths intervention teachers.
A spokesperson from Minister of Education Erica Stanford’s office said most former RT Lit teachers continue to be employed by schools in a teaching role.
“Teachers, including SLA [Structured Literacy Approach] teachers, are employed by school boards,” the spokesperson said.
“Their specialised literacy expertise remains in the education system and is benefiting students across the country.”
The spokesperson said the Government’s new $131m literacy and maths package will expand classroom resources and targeted supports for literacy.
They said an additional 762 students are now receiving Ongoing Resourcing Scheme funding nationwide, alongside 612,120 extra teacher assistant hours delivered this year.
They added the Early Intervention Service has supported 13,457 children so far, including 3242 in Years 0-1.
“These students would not have received this support previously.”