Caution needed on mega schools

SUGGESTIONS New Zealand may have some mega secondary schools with 4500 pupils by 2043 may sound farfetched.

It is certainly a long way from the first missionary school which opened in 1816 at Hohi in the Bay of Islands in a 10m by 6m building with 33 pupils. Mega schools have been described as being almost like small towns.

The Ministry of Education modelling suggests that by 2043 rolls for some primary schools and intermediates in high growth areas could reach 1200 pupils.

In Otago and Southland, it seems schools are far from reaching such dizzying roll numbers.

The secondary school with the largest roll, according to this year’s March returns, is Invercargill’s James Hargest College on 1777, a long way off the biggest school in the country, Auckland’s Rangitoto College which has 3250 pupils.

Rangitoto College’s principal does not want the school to get any bigger, but the only other school with more than 3000 pupils, Auckland's Mount Albert Grammar School (3200), is expecting it could reach 4000 in the next five years.

School rolls in the Lakes District have increased by 57.4% in the last decade, but the impact of the downturn in tourism seems likely to affect that rate of growth.

In those areas which do have high growth we wonder if super schools are necessarily the best answer to capacity issues.

As Post Primary Teachers Association president Jack Boyle told RNZ, just because it is possible does not mean it is a good idea.

Among the difficulties are developing a culture where all feel part of the school, staff allocation, pastoral care, the physical requirements for accommodating that many pupils and even maintaining cohesion among staff when you cannot fit them into one room.

We would hope the ministry will proceed cautiously, evaluating properly whether mega schools have more advantages than disadvantages and whether they are fit for a time when there is an increasing recognition of the importance of community.

AND ANOTHER THING

Last week teacher aides began reaping the benefits of the equity claim lodged by their union the New Zealand Education Institute Te Riu Roa in 2017.

This will mean pay increases of $4 to $6.60 an hour, backdated to February this year.

These increases are long overdue for work which has been undervalued and which is primarily done by women. Any remnants of the notion the work is unskilled have hopefully disappeared with the old pay rates.

Anyone who has done the job or seen teacher aides in action will appreciate the complexity of the work, work which can expose aides at times to verbal abuse or physical danger.

Job insecurity has been a major bugbear for teacher aides, and it is pleasing to see as part of the settlement annual variation of hours for permanent teacher aides will be limited to a maximum of 25%.

The trouble is, many teacher aides will not be classed as permanent employees, often because of the misuse of fixedterm agreements.

This shabby but common behaviour has been tolerated for far too long in many schools and other educational organisations.

Women in affected jobs who love and value the work they do can be reluctant to insist on their rights because they may fear they will miss out on future work.

Information is being gathered by the union and the School Trustees Association on schools’ use of fixed term agreements so guidance on their use can be developed for schools.

This should not be necessary. The law on fixedterm agreements is clear and should be followed by all schools now.