Parents will tell M.P. of ratio concern

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 7

Parents will tell M.P. of ratio concern

By

MARITA VANDENBERG

Parents of children at Redcliffs School are so concerned about the high pupil to teacher ratio at the school that they intend taking the matter up with their member of Parliament, Dr Peter Simpson. Parents presented a petition about ratios to a meeting of their board of trustees on July 12. Three of the school’s classes have more than 35 pupils. The new entrants’ class has 22 pupils but this is expected to rise to as many as 40 by the end of the year. The chairwoman of the Redcliffs board of trustees, Mrs Tatjana Parsons, said the board had no flexibility to introduce extra staff. The board was preparing a letter which would be signed by parents and presented to Dr Simpson, she said. The organiser of the petition, Mrs Sue Tarrant, said parents might even consider paying for an extra teacher out of their own pocket “if it really boils down to that.” Some parents had written directly to the Minister of Education, Mr Lange, she said.

The school’s principal, Mr Bob Dann, said he had

written to the Education Board seeking extra staff.

Mr Dann said the board had replied that the school met the one to 30 teacher-pupil ratio when returns for school rolls were sent in on July 1. The school was therefore staffed according to regulations and funding for an extra teacher could not be justified. Overcrowding in classes was caused by the school’s need to keep the new entrants’ class small, he said. Many new entrants were expected during the next few months.

Mr Dann said unlike Redcliffs, some schools had achieved the one to 20 teacher-pupill ratio for junior classes promised in the Labour Party manifesto.

“We haven’t really been told why some schools got funded for extra teachers to make up the one to 20 ratio and others didn't. I suspect it was based on socio-economic factors.”

Mr Dann suggested that first-year teachers, no longer guaranteed jobs for next year, could be offered jobs in schools such as Redcliffs, which were technically not entitled to extra staff, but which were struggling with large classes.