Credibility of school heads 'on the line’

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 9

Credibility of school heads 'on the line’

PA Auckland The credibility of school principals was on the line, the president of the New Zealand Post-Primary Teachers’ Association, Mr Des Hinch, of Greymouth, told secondary school heads in Auckland on Saturday. Speaking at the opening session of the annual national principals’ conference, Mr Hinch reminded members that they took a strong stand on the place of the University Entrance examination, to move it from Form 6 to Form 7, at their conference last year. That decision was made, he said, to provide a “better, more relevant education for the vast majority of senior students.”

He told 220 principals that no real progress had been made in the year.

“Last week there were some hopeful signs on the

creation of the longpromised board of studies — but that is the only and very late response to your resolution. “Principals should provide professional leadership in the curriculum and assessment area and on this issue I believe your credibility is on the line. “Will you stand by your much-publicised 1982 decision or will principals be seen as bell-wethers stepping aside at the criticial moment and letting the rest go forward?”

The Secondary Staffing Report, said Mr Hinch, was the association’s top priority. He said that the Minister of Education, Mr Wellington, had indicated he would make an announcement on the future of the report to the conference.

Mr Hinch said: “It will be of great interest to see if he proposes a future of more and more sticking-plaster attempts at staffing or whether he will have the vision and the will to accept the carefully-considered and well-researched proposals agreed to by the depart-

ment, the Secondary Schools Boards’ Association, and us." A joint committee of Education Department and education group representatives, in a report released last month, said there should be big changes in staffing. It said that the present system, based on the number of pupils, should be abandoned and replaced with one which took into account teaching duties outside the classroom and curriculum choices. It recommended maximum class sizes of 30 pupils at Forms 1 to 4, 25 students at Form 5 and 20 at sixth and seventh forms.