Class sizes must be much smaller – Teachers’ Union
The Labour Government is promising slightly smaller class sizes for pupils in years four to eight.
Instead of 29 students per teacher, there would be 28.
This is bullshit.
Reducing class sizes is essential for quality education.
Schools should be 1 to 26, like it was in the previous Labour manifesto, this 29 to 28 is meaningless bullshit.
Schools should be 1 to 26 + a teachers aid + a special education aid (if required).
Schools should be a 4 day working week.
Schools should have tertiary education that is free and bonded.
Schools should have housing for bonded teachers.
Schools should include vast amounts ion money spent on after hours adult education.
Schools should include sustainable energy and power solutions.
Schools should have vegetable gardens.
Schools should have free breakfast and lunch.
That would be aspirational for our students, that would be aspirational for the role of education in our society, that would be aspirational in rebuilding important connections with our communities.
We need Super Schools.
Instead we get this bullshit from Labour.
How utterly self defeating.
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I think what Labour meant to say is if we move one bad trouble maker kid out of the class, then this will in theory make the teachers job easier.
Why is it that no one, absolutely no one, among all of the supposedly clever, intelligent and politically savvy people in the Labour policy team saw that a reduction of 1 pupil in class size was a ridiculous policy that would be rightly ridiculed. What next, each hospital will get 1 extra doctor.
Why is it that no one, absolutely no one, among all of the supposedly clever, intelligent and politically savvy people in the Labour policy team saw that a reduction of 1 pupil in class size was a ridiculous policy that would be rightly ridiculed. What next, each hospital will get 1 extra doctor.
Maybe they looked at the bigger numbers involved? Working out the number of primary pupils in total & the number of new teachers required soon becomes unachievable with a teacher-to-student ratio we would prefer. For every 1000 students 1:29 requires 34.5 teachers, 1:28 requires 35.7 teachers. 1:25 would require 40 teachers or 5.5 extra teachers from current levels, Google says there are about 450000 primary students in NZ so that would require 2475 extra teachers to get a 1:25 ratio compared to 540 extra teachers needed to provide the 1:28 ratio.
Well that doesn’t seem very hard. Get some recent graduates and there are heaps currently are wasted in hospitality, retail and clerking and give them a 6 month course in how to speak compellingly to a class of kids.
And get some school leavers and give them a course in how to teach primary kids to read write and add. Remember back in the day a 12 year old who could pass the primary school leaving exam with excellence could get a job teaching kids his junior.
Then get a heap of truancy officers and prosecute parents that don’t ensure their kids are at school.
Give the teachers a 20 percent pay rise when the NZ teaching body as a whole has improved overall pupil performance by 10 percent.
Why is it that no one, absolutely no one, among all of the supposedly clever, intelligent and politically savvy people in the Labour policy team saw that a reduction of 1 pupil in class size was a ridiculous policy that would be rightly ridiculed. What next, each hospital will get 1 extra doctor.
Peter, a school principal interviewed spoke positively of the move because the 1 pupil less per class is about the proportion of funding increase rather than it being anything to do with supporting teachers and lesser class sizes. The extra funding means targeting those individual children requiring extra support, i.e. special needs.
Sadly the media and TDB have sold you a dud and actually it is the complete opposite to what you say, this is clever, intelligent and political savvy. I suggest you watch 6pm T.V.one news on demand 17/04/2023 and hear why this is a massive benefit.
I well recall classes of 38-42 kids while I was in primary school in the 1970s. I actually got Mum to dig out my old school class photos to confirm it. Are trying to say education was worse then as a result?
The teachers union wants less work and more members.
Who’d have thought!
So you think we should have classes of 75+ people?
No just teachers that can pull finger and improve the performance level of school leavers. Less whinge and better results, then ask for a pay rise.
There may be a case for lower class sizes to improve teaching performance but it seems currently pupil performance has fallen from what it had been in the past and at the same time class sizes have been reduced. Please explain.
Not just education going nowhere, everywhere meaningless, expensive, committee Ponzi’s that don’t do anything but expand themselves into more woke doing next to nothing while the problems get worse.
In this case in health a 12 person committee set up to help medical staff gaps have done nothing but expanded and set up six professional working groups and 20 profession steering groups.
Taskforce to address health staff gaps failing to deliver, doctors say
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/488219/taskforce-to-address-health-staff-gaps-failing-to-deliver-doctors-say
“Senior and junior doctors say the government’s national workforce taskforce set up months ago with fanfare has not delivered.
They say it is not even clear what is being done to avert the most immediate threat – another winter of crisis for GPs and hospitals.
The government last August laid out measures it said were just the start of a national workforce plan.
The 12-member taskforce followed with a pledge to focus on areas requiring “immediate attention” and on substantive improvements.
It has since set up six professional working groups and 20 profession steering groups.
But nine months on, as the taskforce chair steps down, Dr Deborah Powell of the junior doctors’ union – the Resident Doctors’ Association – has been left struggling to see what has been achieved.
She went to just two taskforce meetings.
“I can safely say it was tokenism. We just didn’t get a chance,” she said.
“The taskforce, as far as I could see, hand-selected a few individuals – not necessarily with any workforce experience and certainly not representative of the workforce – and went about its business, and, as far as we are aware, has produced very little.”
How sad that the usa cliche has come true in NZ – Look out the government is here to help you.
Education is on a bell curve – the downward slope.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/488267/changes-to-ncea-deferred-so-schools-can-prioritise-maths-and-literacy
Today’s announcement followed a series of trials with Year 10 students that found many did not know how to use capital letters and full stops and did not know there were 60 minutes in an hour.
The writing test had the lowest pass rates with last year’s pilots recording pass rates of 34 per cent and 46 per cent.
An independent review said some students might struggle with the tests because they were not familiar with using computers, leading to suggestions the tests were unfair.
NOTE – IN BOLD ABOUT COMPUTERS – SHOWING HOW THEY ARE USED AS A WEDGE AGAINST LEARNING AND ALSO THAT AN INDEPENDENT REVIEW BROUGHT THIS UP. TECH BUSINESS VOMITING ITS HEGEMONY OVER US! What about the pencils??
Back in the eighties and nineties schools fundraised to get computer equipment so kids would have some semblance of computing knowledge before joining the workforce. Now all education is connected and computerised. A parent does not know if a child has done the homework unless they read their kid’s emails. But with the advent of ChatGPT won’t teachers have to ask for handwritten work done in real-time?
Perhaps get rid of competition between schools.
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