Classes will drop from 29 to 28. You cannot make this stuff up.
They slipped the news to media so they could start previewing it this morning.
They wheeled out the Education Minister, they flew the Prime Minister to Auckland, and they hauled out the reporters who got the live streams going.
All to announce they’re dropping class sizes by one student.
Not a joke- one student. Come on.
Let’s be realistic about what that’s going to do, it’s going to give the 28 remaining kids in the class an extra 6 seconds an hour with the teacher.
No parent believes that’s enough to, as the Education Minister reckons, turn around our decline in reading writing and maths.
Really the saddest thing about today’s announcement, apart from the lack of ambition is that this is a recycled promise from Labour.
Back in 2014, 9 years ago- they promised that they would reduce class sizes to 26 by 2018.
2018 came and went, and five years on, not only have they not delivered on that promise of dropping class sizes to 26, but now they’re not even promising as much.
This is not even an announcement worth making. You have to question the political wisdom of hauling the PM out to announce this.
This just opens Labour up to ridicule for thinking it’s worth announcing class size reduction of one student, and it reminds voters that previous promises were more ambitious- and never delivered on.
Few should be impressed by this and few should expect it to happen.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show.
3 comments:
A desperate Govt, trying to present some good news no matter how trifling, while everything around them is turning pear-shaped. And, of course, anything to divert some attention away from NZ being sold down the river with 3/5/Unaffordable Waters.
This has to be one of the more fatuous announcements from this government in its 5.5 year history.
1. there aren’t enough teachers
2. there’s too much feel-good, socialist indoctrination going on, any teacher on middle ground or leaning to the Right doesn’t want to know, and doesn’t want to be in a classroom
3, parents are likely just to keep their children at home or leave them to wander the streets (happening now).
Through the NZ Education Hub ,I learned of a site in the UK called 'The Education Endowment Foundation' an English charitable organisation giving information on what works and doesn't work in teaching along with other helpful advice. Considering cost, impact and evidence ,scores are given for specific changes.
Clearly our out of touch ministry and our current political party do not seriously have children's academic achievement at the center of their thinking.
Reducing class size has low impact ,for very high cost based on very limited evidence. Compare this with phonics instruction which has high impact for very low cost, based on very extensive evidence. Similarly, oral language interventions,mastery learning and reading comprehension strategies rank highly.
I despair that our shocking standards will ever improve. Dominant in our schools is balanced literacy which often has only a very limited phonic content. But changing just that would mean overturning decades of ideological nonsense.
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