Sanity has prevailed

As the old Kenny Rogers song goes, ‘‘You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, and know when to fold ’em’’.

Education Minister Hekia Parata and the National Government knew this as well as anyone last week, when she announced its backdown on teacher funding reforms – and for many in the education sector, an analogy to The Gambler would be deserving of the proposal.

While the Budget trumpeted $511.9 million of operating funding for new education initiatives during the next four years, including $59.8m to improve teacher quality, the trade-off sliced more than the education sector and parents could stomach – increased teacher-student ratios at schools and cuts to technology.

Everyone would agree better teachers make for better teaching, but big talk about training and mentoring was no match for simple logic.

As most of us have experienced, whether it be five years ago, 15 or 50 – the more students a teacher has in the room, the tougher it is to teach and to learn.

Ms Parata made the case that teacher numbers had increased by more than 12 per cent during the past decade while student numbers went up by just 2.5 per cent, yet achievement remained the same.

But we have had scant explanation for the stagnation, and given the multitude of factors that go into NCEA assessments, it was quite a stretch to downplay the relevance of teacher-student ratios.

Had the backdown not come last week, we would have run an article today on how the cuts extended to removing the bus subsidy for ‘‘client schools’’ to attend classes technology hubs; locally, Brandon, Tawa and Titahi Bay Intermediate, and Plimmerton School.

One technology teacher told us this would have wiped out technology training for some schools and was indicative of the Government’s disingenuous intentions.

Thankfully, it would seem, sanity has prevailed and we can take solace in at least seeing the Government respect the will of the people, though $114m in cuts still need to be found.

Matthew Dallas, Editor.