Teachers' deal may axe some classes

ANDREW GORRIE/Dominion Post

SMALLER BUT NO BETTER: Rongotai College's Graeme Jarratt says smaller classes outlined in the Ministry of Education's collective agreement settlement offer to teachers may mean less popular subjects have to go.

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Secondary schools may have to axe niche classes such as foreign subjects and lay off staff under a $300 million pay deal for teachers, principals warn.

The Secondary Principals Association says schools will be expected to limit average class sizes for most teachers to 26 - as outlined in the Education Ministry's collective agreement settlement offer - but the move is unworkable without more government funding.

The three-year pay and conditions deal, covering the country's 18,000 secondary teachers, was ratified yesterday after a series of paid union meetings. They will get 12.5 per cent more pay over three years.

The Post Primary Teachers Association has been campaigning for smaller classes to help teachers deal with disruptive pupils, reduce workload and implement the Government's "personalised learning" vision - to tailor education to individual needs.

The ministry's last offer - revised in September to stave off a planned one-day strike - said schools must use "reasonable endeavour" to limit average class sizes to 26 pupils for any teacher with more than one class.

But principals' association president Peter Gall said the Government had made no commitment to change funding of schools' staffing to enable the change.

Without more money to hire more teachers, schools could have to cut niche classes with small rolls, like language and technology subjects. This would mainly hit senior pupils but could also affect specialist programmes in junior classes and mean laying off specialist subject teachers, he said.

He has written to ministry boss Karen Sewell highlighting the concerns but has yet to get a reply.

"It might be that certain subjects will have to go. It might be that jobs are put at risk. Principals are left in the middle to manage. It might promote conflict between principals and their staff."

The problem was exacerbated by the need to give teachers more non-contact time - a key concession in the 2001 bargaining round - and the Government's failure to implement key staffing recommendations from a cross-sector advisory group, he said.

Rongotai College principal Graeme Jarratt agreed moves to limit class sizes meant his school would need more teachers. But without extra money it would consider cutting less popular subjects such as Japanese or electronics. "Maybe some of them would have to go. (Pupils) would have to take them by correspondence, I guess."

PPTA president Robin Duff admitted any requirement to reduce class sizes would put "tremendous pressure" on resources - but limiting numbers was critical.

"The Government clearly has to come up with some solutions in the very near future."

Ministry industrial relations manager Chris Collins would not comment on the bargaining process but said secondary schools were given general classroom staffing at a ratio of one teacher to 17.7 students.

Schools could allocate teachers across the school as they wished, letting them run classes with smaller numbers.

Officials planned to meet principal representatives to discuss their concerns.

- © Fairfax NZ News