Minister ignores parents’ concerns on education
new-zealand-labour-party
Wed May 23 2012 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Minister ignores parents’ concerns on education
Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 5:03 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party
Nanaia Mahuta
Education Spokesperson
23 May 2012
Minister ignores parents’ concerns
Parents around the country are worried about the effect of larger class sizes on their children’s learning - and rightly so, Labour’s Education spokesperson, Nanaia Mahuta says.
“I sought an assurance from Minister Parata today that no child will be negatively affected by being moved into larger classes.
"Yet instead of backing her decision up with some evidence-based research, all we heard was further justification from the Minister that her trade-off – a preference for 'quality teachers' - was the magic solution that would fix everything.
"I am particularly concerned that children just starting school will be negatively affected, as will students attending rural and low decile schools who also face the prospect of losing teachers.
“This will inevitably put more pressure on those teachers left to cope with more children in larger classes,” Nanaia Mahuta said.
"The quality of the learning classroom environment is vitally important for children starting school, yet the new ratios are going to hit exactly this demographic - Y2-Y4 - at a time when the Government has also imposed National Standards Testing in reading, writing and math.
"Students in Y5-Y10 will also be affected at a pivotal time in their life - when they are going through adolescence. It’s a stage associated with greater risk taking tendencies and a time when peer pressure can also have a significant effect on attitude and behaviour.
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"Minister Parata is happy to make 'trade-offs’ in the form of larger class sizes and capped teacher numbers to satisfy the Governments 'zero budget' target.
"But National is on the wrong track here. All young children deserve the very best start at school - that's smaller class sizes and a teacher who is able to spend time helping them to learn, grow and extend their potential, while our teens deserve a fair deal in the classroom as well,” said Nanaia Mahuta.
ENDS
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