27 May 2012

For Immediate Release

Principals and teachers to launch urgent claim on class size to protect children’s learning

Principals and teachers will be asked to support an urgent proposal aimed at reducing class sizes when they meet next month to vote on the claim they will put forward during their collective agreement negotiations, an emergency summit of NZEI's elected leaders agreed this weekend.

Negotiations on the renewal of the primary teachers' and the primary principals’ collective agreements are due to begin in August. Teachers and principals will be asked to support the urgent addition to their claim at paid union meetings which are being held throughout New Zealand starting on June 5.

NZEI Te Riu Roa President Ian Leckie says principals, teachers and parents have been contacting the union, angry and frustrated at the Government's Budget decision to increase class sizes. NZEI will also consult parents on their views before entering negotiations with the Government in August.

"No Government in living memory has made a deliberate decision to increase class sizes. The Budget cuts may help the Government's balance sheet but they come at the expense of our children's learning."

"Parents and teachers are rightly concerned at the impact this decision will have on children's learning. Research shows young children and those students most at risk benefit from smaller class sizes. The more students there are in each class, the fewer opportunities a teacher has to address the individual learning needs of each student.”

Mr Leckie says the Budget's impact on technology and arts programmes for years 7-8 students was particularly severe.

“The specialist programmes that intermediates offer engage students in learning skills that will help build the innovative workforce of tomorrow. The business and manufacturing sector in particular should be concerned about the cuts to these programmes.”

“The Government's decisions utterly undermine its rhetoric about raising student achievement,“ Ian Leckie says.

"We look forward to taking the issue of class size in our claim to the Government with the support of both parents and teachers."

ENDS

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