Wellington, Oct 22 NZPA - Teachers say a government move to channel education funds into reading, writing and maths means there will be a shortage of advice in key curriculum areas.

The Ministry of Education has told schools they will not get extra support for teaching arts, science and physical education next year.

The money will instead go into teaching reading, writing and maths, ahead of the introduction of national standards in those subjects.

Teachers will not get any help from advisory groups, provided by six universities, for anything other than those core subjects.

The primary teachers union, NZEI, said students would be the ultimate losers.

"School support services are invaluable, with advisors working with teachers to build their knowledge and competence in specialist areas," said NZEI president Frances Nelson.

"If teachers don't feel confident and knowledgeable in teaching science or the arts because they haven't access to any profession help to do so, they'll be reluctant to teach it or won't teach it in the most effective way."

Ms Nelson said a suggestion by Education Minister Anne Tolley that the focus of advisory services could change in future years was "totally impractical".

"Advisors in the specialist areas which are being cut will leave and won't easily be replaced to meet a change government focus," she said.

Prime Minister John Key is backing the change.

"There's nothing more important that we can do than making sure we equip every young New Zealander with appropriate literacy and numeracy standards," he told reporters.

Ms Tolley reacted to criticism by saying she was "damned if I do, and damned if I don't".

"With this sector I can't win ... if I hadn't provided them with support I can bet you we'd be having the same conversation about how I'm going to be requiring them to implement national standards with no support," she said.

Setting national standards in reading, writing and maths was a National Party campaign promise and is due to come in next year.

Parents will be given clear reports on how their children are performing against the benchmarks.

Details of the national standards are due to be released tomorrow.

Teacher unions are afraid the national standards will be used to compare the performance of schools through "league tables". The Government has said it will do all it can to stop that happening.