Book closing on literacy help

Literacy teaching specialists are worried for the ongoing literacy learning of students and teachers alike as their roles are disestablished at the end of 2025.

These 109 Resource Teachers of Literacy (RTLit) positions provide support for teachers to gain the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to implement an evidence-based approach to literacy and help primary school students accelerate literacy progress in the classroom.

Marlborough literacy teaching specialist Ingrid Hillgrove was emotional to know that her “dream job” was being cut and was concerned for the future of literacy support for those most in need.

“Our work focuses on providing targeted literacy support for students who have already received quality, evidence-based classroom instruction and small group interventions, yet continue to struggle. We’re the last line of defence, and we’re being taken away” says Ingrid.

“When this Government campaigned on structured literacy targets, I had never felt more secure in this job because RTLits were champions of this change of pedagogy and supported schools to embrace structured literacy even before Education Minister Stanford’s structured literacy mandate. But we have been totally discarded.”

“Now there’s a pool of knowledgeable, talented, skilled literacy specialists, which the Ministry of Education paid to train, who have no career options aligned to our specialist tier 3 knowledge and skill.”

“Families whose children need additional literacy assistance will no longer have access to this free support service, and primary school teachers are under enough stress without having to research the most up-to-date literacy learning techniques which we’ve been able to help with.”

Ingrid says the connections she and her fellow specialists form with students and teachers become very close, and she’s unhappy that the over 2500 voices which supported the continuation of the RTLit service through the consultation document have been ignored in this decision.

“I’ve worked in all 28 Marlborough primary schools juggling waitlists based on the highest need, the model is not to blame when it has been under-resourced.”

“Minister Stanford cited the inefficiency of the RTLit model due to travelling between schools, yet this is what makes the service equitable, urban and rural schools have access to the same free service. The model can’t be inefficient when the Ministry of Education, has announced similar roles for Maths specialists.”

“The Ministry suggested that RTLits might like to have some Tier 2 positions, for those 20% of students in need of more help. Those positions are funded until the end of 2028. They are year-by-year contract positions, most are part-time positions, and depend on the school or group of schools to match the funding provided by the Ministry of Education, as provided in the Tier 2 Structured Literacy application. I feel very concerned that schools and teachers who do an amazing job, to the best of their ability ... but they don’t have specialists to refer to or seek advice from. It’s especially concerning for smaller or rural schools.”

“I really do worry about these children potentially getting stuck with their literacy if they’ve had tier one and two learning, and they’re still not progressing - what happens then?”