Teachers told falling rolls not putting jobs at risk

Press, 5 November 1983, Page 2

Teachers told falling rolls not putting jobs at risk

South Island State secondary schoolteachers would not lose their jobs because of falling rolls in the immediate future, said an Education Department spokesman yesterday. Dr Colin Knight, the district senior inspector of secondary schools for the Southern region, said no school in the region would have to “terminate” staff between now and next March because of falling rolls.

Dr Knight was concerned that reports of a department “danger list” of secondary schools at risk because of falling rolls would create unnecessary alarm among teachers. About 70 schools throughout New Zealand have been declared “in need of protection” by the department. This meant that staff at the school were “protected” in their positions because of roll fluctations.

If a school lost 20 pupils one year, it would not automatically lose a staff member. Instead the job would be protected for up to two years to allow for roll fluctuations upwards. This prevented unnecessary staff movements, Dr Knight said. To declare a school in need of protection was related to fluctuations in roll rather than just decreases. Ten South Island schools are included in the department’s list of 70. A number of them had been declared in need of protection to safeguard senior adminstrative posts, Dr Knight said.

Being on the list did not mean there would be staff cuts at the school. It simply meant there would a readjustment of staff and positions of responsibility to match the make-up of the school’s pupils. “If there are fewer senior

pupils and more junior pupils, positions of responsibility have to be adjusted,” said Dr Knight.

The South Island schools on the departmental list are Ashburton College, Bayfield High School, Fairlie High School, John Paul II College, Inangahua College, Riccarton High School, Shirley Boys’ High School, Twizel High School, Xavier College, and Christchurch Girls’ High School.

Miss Joan Prisk, the principal of Christchurch Girls’ High School, said yesterday that it was wrong to say the school was at risk because of falling rolls. “We had to turn away more than 80 third-form enrolments for next year because of our intake limits,” she said.

The same was true for Shirley Boys’ High School, said the chairman of the school’s board of governors, Mr Ross Nicholas. The school had had to turn away more than 80 pupils to keep to its third-form intake of 255. The department’s projections for rolls at the 14 Christchurch State secondary schools for the next seven years show that rolls are expected to increase slightly in the next three years. “In fact, we seem to be at a plateau until 1986 when rolls will start to drop. Of course within the over-all city roll individual schools could have falling rolls,” Dr Knight said. The department’s figures for the next seven years are: 1983,15,543; 1984,15,587; 1985, 15,665; 1986, 15,424; 1987, 15,232, 1988, 14,896, 1989, 14,442.

More senior pupils returning to school and a slight growth in primary school numbers at present could alter those figures, said Dr Knight.