SIZE OF SCHOOL CLASSES

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 186, 9 May 1928, Page 10

SIZE OF SCHOOL CLASSES

STATEMENT BY MINISTER Details of an effort which was being made by the Department to reduce the size of classes in schools and some of the difficulties in its way that have to be overcome were placed before delegates at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute by the Minister of Education (lion. R. A. Wright.) “Much has been said recently in regard to the size of classes in the schools,” said the Minister, “and I understand that the platform of the institute proposes 35 as the limit which any one teacher should have in his class. Before the size can be reduced, however, the Department must provide suitable buildings nnd additional classrooms. The cost of this would be enormous, and could be provided only gradually. Much has, however, already been done by remodelling some of the existing buildings and adding to others, and the result has been that the number of pupils per teacher in primary schools has been reduced considerably.” While between 1918 and 1926 the school roll had increased by 24,000, said the Minister, the number of pupils to each adult teacher had been reduced from 40 to 35. There had also been a steady decrease in the size of classes. In 1924 there were 677 classes of over 60 children, in 1926 187 classes of over 60 children, nnd in February, 1928, 99 classes of over 60 children. The regulations, he pointed out, permitted of additional assistance in exceptional circumstances and to meet the case in those 99 classes 71 additional assistants had been provided, while the other classes had been recognised. The result had been that a number of large classes had been reduced. In no case where relief could not be afforded through reorganisation had assistance been withheld.