Bigger classes plan stuns schools

By Daniel Henderson February 4, 2012

The suggestion that increased class sizes deliver better educational outcomes contradicts all the best evidence from overseas, according to the principal of Netherby School, Andrew Leverton. A report from Treasury to the Government that student teacher ratios could be increased and some schools closed, with savings used to improve the quality of teaching are not based in reality, said Mr Leverton whose school has a role of 120.
“If you look at schools that are performing well around the world, this kind of idea runs counter to what they’re seeing in Singapore and Finland with smaller class sizes. New Zealand performs pretty well too, but ideas like this aren’t going to help anything.”
Treasury said New Zealand’s education system produced good outcomes for most students as evidenced by strong performance in international tests, but despite large funding increases achievement levels for some groups remained unacceptably low.
Ian Leckie, the president of the primary teachers’ union, the NZEI, said increasing student ratios and closing schools would be a huge step backwards “and I don’t think schools, parents or communities would be willing to accept it”.
Finance Minister Bill English said he hasn’t ruled out implementing the advice given to him in briefing papers.
“All government departments are having a look at all their costs and education will not be an exception.
“The fact is while we’ve put a lot more money into education and are keen and willing to invest more, particularly through technology and ultra-fast broadband, we need to be sure it is actually adding to achievement.”
If this means cutting teachers and plugging in a few more computers, Mr Leverton has a problem with it.
“Any teacher will tell you the bigger the class size the less time that teacher has individually with each student to assess their needs. Teaching has changed a lot over the last 30 to even 10 years ago. There used to be bigger class sizes of 35 and over, but the expectation of what teachers had to achieve for their students wasn’t what it is today either.”
Netherby School keeps its junior classroom levels at around 14, while classes in middle school stayed around 20 with the senior school about 25 students per class.
The report from Treasury is based on educational researcher Professor John Hattie’s 2009 book Visible Learning.
The author analysed 50,000 studies covering 83 million students around the world concluding that class size, amount of homework and which school a child attended had little effect on learning. The most important factor was the pupil’s ability to assess progress and discuss with their teacher what they needed to do to improve.
The paradoxical advice that increasing class size would somehow allow a student more opportunity to discuss what they needed to improve with their teacher was another in a list of unpopular ideas bandied about in education from those not involved in the classroom, Mr Leverton said.
“2012 is going to be an interesting year for education. The Government is really at odds with the sector. This includes the league tables that most agree will do nothing to tailor to individual students’ needs. They don’t recognise that students develop at their own pace.
“Or the idea that they would put graduates through a pressure cooker six-week-course and they would come out prepared for the classroom. Everyone knows it takes longer than that, and I wouldn’t employ anyone who’d come through a scheme like that,” he said.
Treasury also has tertiary education in its sights, saying expenditure in New Zealand was high in relation to other countries, and there was scope to achieve fiscal savings through reintroducing interest on the student loan scheme.