New Zealand Education System Examined

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32142, 11 November 1969, Page 21

New Zealand Education System Examined

(SpedaWp Written for The Pres, by

E.B.LOCK)

How big is the effort to educate young New Zealanders? Is it big enough to meet the demands of the future, properly balanced, and of sufficient quality? How well are those engaged in education rewarded for their services? 1 iVould higher salari j«ausbetter conditions attract more teachers or make better teachers of die men and women already working in the schools and other educational institutions?

One New Zealander!! every three is enrolled ai a pupil or student in M educational institution Of the 1,174,000 Nev Zealanders who were be tween the ages of threi and 24 last year all but 320,000 were full-time oi part-time pupils oi students. ~-Z' 1 ' The proportion of th, population in the classroom has been growing stesdil; year by year; In 1950 abou 26 of every 100 New Zea landers were being formall; educated; the figure it h«v higher than 31 in 100. Thesi figures Include students tax ing part-time or abort course of instruction. In part, this change repre sents no more than the fac that the proportion of th< population of school age ii higher than it was 10 yean ago. But there is more to i than that. Children stay a school longer; more attenc universities: kindergartet rolls have doubled; the num ber of full-time and part time students at technic* colleges and institutes, and oi those taking technical cor respondence courses, oi special‘technical training, hai increased more than 60 pei cent In short, more Nev Zealanders are getting mon education. However important univer sity and technical educatiot may be now and in th< future, the primary anc secondary schools remain th< critical area of education; il education fails in these schools little can be done t< repair it elsewhere. Unprecedented Increase In the whole field of edu cation, from kindergarten t< university, the expansion oi roll numbers in the last 1( years has been nnpreceden ted. The number of student! and pupils has risen 38 pet cent; the number of teachert has increased even more rapidly—by nearly 50 pei cent In spite of complaints that the number of teachers it still too small the rolls oi teachers’ colleges continue to expand. Since 1959, the number of students in the colleges has increased bj about 65 per cent Within the primary and secondary schools the con trast between the rise in the number of pupils and the rise in the number of teachers ii more marked than the teacher-pupil ratio for the entire education system. Rol numbers have risen 14 pei cent in the last decade. The number of teachers workinj full time in the schools hai risen 42 per cent In other words, there are 114 pupils where there were 100 in 1959; and where there were 100 teachers it 1959 there are now at least 142. The staffing problems oi many schools were serious I decade ago. This improve

•? ... ■ ■ of "the*MtiS and* teaching standards, and to , lltfhte” *ho Inod on m*nV teachers seem prepared to coni cede that the schools today (Jasa Sixes One important result of the better supply of teachers ’ has been the reduction in 1 the size of classes in primary • schools with rolls of 110 or r more had more than 40 • pupils; but there are no 1 longer scores of schoolrooms with between 50 and 60 • pupils as there were 20 years l ago. Probably the best measure i of progress is the number of i children in large classes, t Education Department sthtist tics do not show this number; I it can only be estimated. A i fair estimate shows that ■ 121,000 children (or 32 per • cent of the primary school I population) were in classes of ’ more than 40 in 1961. By last ■ year the number had been re- - duced to less than 72,000—0 r i about 16 per cent of the pri- ■ mary school population of • 445,000. There are still about 1600 classes with 41 to 45 pupils • but these represent less than i 12 per cent of the 14,000 i primary and intermediate I school classes in the country, i To teach these 14,000 classes ' in State schools there are i about 17,000 full-time i teachers—a number that includes, of course, principals and specialist teachers. Another indication of the lighter load of work on teachers, and of the better deal for their pupils, is the better teacher-pupil ratio. In ! 1959, for every full-time teacher in the State primary 1 school system there were 33 ■ pupils. Today there are fewer ’ than 27 pupils to each ' teacher. The ratio is still i higher than is desirable and ! this national figure does not ’ excuse the mal-distribution of teachers disastrous short- ; ages in some schools and a ; comfortable supply of ' teachers in others. The teacher-pupil ratio in private primary schools has also improved, but has always been less favourable and remains unsatisfactory. Ten years ago there were more than 38 pupils for every teacher in the independent primary schools; the ratio is still nearly 33 to one. Teacher Supply The supply of post-primary , school teachers has also ; improved—from one teacher I for about 20 pupils in 1959 1 to one teacher for 16 pupils last year. Again, this favourable, over-all change does not disclose the shortage of specialist teachers, particularly In science subjects and mathematics. But it does suggest that the teaching profession is not losing ground as an attractive career. The shortage of teachers may be socially more serious than the shortage of workers in other fields; certainly, it is not possible to represent the shortage in precise terms of money, or forgone output, or lost opportunities. Nevertheless, it is obvious that ability goes unexploited and talents undeveloped; the personal satisfaction and ambitions of young people often remain unfulfilled when the education system falls short of matching the needs of its pupils. How much has been done in the last decade to ensure that the education system does not fall short of the demands upon it? While the number of children at schools and the number of students at universities and technical colleges and institutes has risen 38 per cent the expen-

|,>lf t • 5 ■ J “ t i i ii - diture of public money bn i education more than doubled t —frten $79 million in 1959 to i $lBB million last year. This > year, Parliament voted more | than $2OO million for all I educational purposes. Fared Better # The greater part of these | sums is spent on the salaries of teachers. Teachers have : fared better than most s workers for pay rises in the I last 10 years. On average, I wages and salaries for men f in all occupations have I increased a little more than 1 40 per cent; teachers* salaries r have increased in the same ) period by 60 to 80 per cent 1 In 1959 a teacher with r University Entrance and five ) years of service in primary s schools received a basic salary ) of $1570. The salary this year s for a teacher with the same qualification and experience > is s26lo—an increase of 66 f per cent A post-primary school > teacher with a B.A. degree ; and five years of service in L 1959 was paid $1780; the pret sent salary for such a teacher f is $3200 —an increase of 1 nearly 80 per cent These t examples represent fairly well t the sort of pay increases at . most levels on the salary

i tutes in the largest cities I where it is fairly certain that > the size of the population and > the needs of local industries i justify the expenditure. Ex--1 perience with these institutes would determine how much further the programme should go. b One awkward result qf em- ' barking on further tertiary * education will be that the : teachers most needed will’ be those of whom there is ’ already the greatest shortage ■ —the teacbete of scientific * and technical subjects. What- ; ever satisfaction may be had * from the renovation and ex- * tension of the education sys- ' tern in recent years, the * battle for more education is * far from being won.

r scales except for starting pay . and for the salaries of the f highest positions in schools. The increases at these two j points on the salary scale s have been rather higher than ! the average rise. j Although many teachers be- » lieve that their pay is still . not commensurate with their j worth to society, comparable » with teachers’ pay in other > countries, or sufficient to retain them jn the profession, 5 the better-than-average deal for teachers appears to > explain why there has been i much greater growth in the r teaching force than in the > labour force generally. Inadequacies ! Whatever satisfaction might r be taken from the record of i education in the last decade it 1 is not hard to discover serious I inadequacies In the education t system. There is general ' agraement throughout the . - country; among parents, > educationists, smployers, and f among many pupils and students themselves, -that the 1 system is far from perfect. ’ An Important problem that ’ is only beginning to show ! signs of being resolved is > the conflict between the de- > maud for specialist training ' and the desire for a broadlyt based education for all young ’ citizens. The obvious solution is to lengthen the process of education. Most authorities are averse , to raising the school leaving . age; one sound reason for r their objection is that the > formal school system, even s with its variety of courses .and classes' in the larger , schools to the various abittf ties and aptitudes of children, . could never be flexible , enough to suit the needs of s ail pupils. Further education, . voluntarily sought by young I people as their specific needs and interests become more ; apparent to them, must be i provided through institutions ; working above the secondary- ; school level. . The universities and the t main technical institutes are - already meeting part of the . demand for tertiary educa- , tion. The National Develops ment Conference, viewing the l problem as one of economic p and social importance, recomt mended the establishment of ■ technical Institutes In the r smaller cities when the i demand ter them becomes apparent The Labour Party « has specified “community ! colleges’* in its education i policy. The difference; appears > to be , one of name only. s The. first difficulty would i be to. establish where and' i when demand for local coll leges ,or Institutes arises, s Probably tire only solution is • to begin establishing ineti-