Government backtrack doesn’t address education blunder

28 May 2012

Government backtrack doesn’t address education blunder

The moves by the government to soften the effect its Budget policies will have on the country’s intermediate schools do not appear to go far enough to reverse the damage threatening to undermine our public education system.

NZEI Te Riu Roa President, Ian Leckie says obviously the Government has now realised that its rushed policy of removing the funding for technology teaching at intermediate and in years 7 and 8 in primary schools was based on poor quality advice from the Ministry of Education. And that it was clearly going far too far.

“However NZEI is concerned that the Prime Minister says the government will work with the worst affected schools to try to “mitigate” the effects of the cutbacks.”

“That does not go far enough to reverse the potential damage that an increase in class sizes will have right across the primary school sector,” Mr Leckie says.

“The government needs to acknowledge that its education policy is wrong and that it needs to take urgent steps to reverse its blunder."

“We need the government to understand that an increase in class sizes will have an impact on teaching and that the children most affected will be the young and those who are struggling.”

“Quite simply, bigger classes means less individual time that teachers will have with students.”

“This is the first time in living memory that any government has moved to increase class sizes in our schools and we would call on the government to reverse that damaging policy before it is too late.”

“Parents are telling us they feel very strongly about this. That is why the NZEI has taken the extraordinary step of including the issue of class sizes in its collective agreement negotiations due to begin in August.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media