Teacher aides and other school support staff will meet at Arrowtown School today to plan a campaign to pressure the Government to lift a freeze on school funding.
The meeting is one of many being held throughout the country by 9000 primary and secondary school support staff.
In a media statement, New Zealand Educational Institute communications adviser Melissa Schwalger said the funding freeze was an obstacle to negotiations for a new collective contract.
The union considered an increase in school operations grants to be ``non-negotiable'' so support staff could get a pay rise.
``Otherwise, many principals will simply be forced to reduce staff hours or cut jobs to compensate for the cost of any pay rise.''
NZEI support staff representative Sue Poole said children could lose a few hours of learning support during the meetings, but the goal was to plan a nationwide campaign to ensure children would not lose that support permanently.
The union wanted a 2% pay rise, which was in line with teachers.
It had been negotiating with the Ministry of Education since late last year, but no progress had been made, Ms Poole said.
``We know schools can't afford to pay us more, so any increase in pay must be covered by an increase in the operations grant.''
The meeting starts at 1pm.
