Teacher-pupil ratio move ‘unrealistic’

Press, 10 May 1982, Page 6

Teacher-pupil ratio move ‘unrealistic’

Proposals to reduce the teacher-pupil ratio seemed to hav'g little basis in any realistfolappraisal of the. educational resources New.Zealandf could maintain, said the Minister of Education (Mr Wellington) in Christchurch last evening. ' ? / “The Government is not prepared to use valuable resources merely to create positions for teachers in those localities where they wish to teach." he told delegate? at the opening of the New; Zealand Educational Institute's annual conference in Hall. . 260 delegates from branches of the institute, representing 95 per cent of primary schoolteachers., are attending the conference, which will continue in the Horticultural Hall this week. Throughout his address. was heckled an£ jeered and he often had to repeat himself to be heard abtfv-e the-din. ■ Mt Wellington advised teachers .to go to those places where there were positions a vailable,, or “they, caijjiot. expect to be employed.” • ‘*Che Government believes thai’there is insufficient evidence to cause it again to reduce the present teacherpupig ratio, especially at a tmfewhen it is reducing its own expenditure,” he said. , '‘Uhpalatable though it may be. the Government is cormjiitted and determined to Reduce its spending by a target of 3 per cent. The Cabinet is now considering the|e' proposals, and deciwill be announced in the'ißudget," he said. “With . falling rolls - in schools, the capital works programme, for example, is one-ifbvious item where reasonable adjustment could be made.” Mr» Wellington said there waC'a requirement for only

one new primary school in New Zealand this year, “and I am looking very closely at even that.” - » ■ Enrolments' in primary schools had peaked at 525.323 in 1975. . By 1981, they had fallen to 493.856, he said. “The downward path is expected to continue to a point of 414,000 in 1990. The anticipated difference is 80.000, an average loss of. 10,000 per annum. Such a trend will create a feeling of insecurity, and I am well aware of this," he said.. Concerned about the adverse effect of falling rolls, the Government had taken rapid .action, and had introduced a guaranteed staffing

component into those schools affected. “Certainly the protection is temporary, and is limited in its extent,” Mr Wellington said. '. ■ “But it is designed to smooth out drops in staffing entitlement by retaining a larger number of full-time teachers than would otherwise be the case. “It will also provide a temporary improvement to the teacher-pupil ratio in a school, as its roll falls. It is a ? flexible use that will apply to: any particular school for one' year only, and it will have a specific purpose,’.’ Mr Well-ington-said. Other reports, page 2;