Small schools pushed to limit

Some sole-charge schools are bursting with too many children and principals are calling for lower limits.

Jo Mahoney, principal of Pongaroa School and part of the New Zealand Education Institute principal negotiation team, said meetings had been held with the Ministry of Education in the past week to highlight the problem.

A school of up to 25 pupils is classified as a sole-charge school, where one person basically runs the school, including teaching the children.

Mahoney said this number was too high and posed a health and safety risk.

‘‘It’s not ideal for a principal to be on their own with that amount of kids. It’s not safe.’’

A¯ piti School principal Mary Cuming said the threshold for two teachers was too high.

The roll could rise above or slip below 25 pupils, and the school did what it could to keep two classrooms.

It was a dairy farming community and the population was transient. Cuming said they could be down on numbers, but then another family might move into the area.

Kiwitea School principal Nicki Fielder said they had too many pupils for two teachers, but not quite enough for three.

In 2017, Kiwitea had 48 pupils, but needed 51 to qualify for a third teacher.

Fielder said the community pulled together to fundraise for a third teacher, to help ease the load.

‘‘The board decided to fund a third teacher in the morning in order for us to have three classes.

‘‘It’s a huge expense to the school. We had a huge fundraiser and auction to help pay for it.’’

Fielder said children at rural schools received quality education and personalised learning plans, but it was a lot of work for the teachers and staff.

‘‘It’s a huge workload when you’re having individual workloads for that amount of kids.’’

She would like to see a sliding scale introduced.

‘‘If you had 40 children, you should have 2.5 teachers.’’

Kiwitea’s roll had shrunk slightly for 2018, though Fielder expects an increase in what is also a dairy farming area.

‘‘We can’t keep funding an extra teacher, so it’s an issue the Ministry of Education needs to look at.’’

Mahoney said the union wanted to make sure teaching was a profession that continued to attract people.

‘‘It’s a passion and if you’re passionate about teaching and education, you need the time to teach and give leaders time to lead.’’

Her personal view was that sole-charge schools should be those with one to 15 children.

Ministry of Education spokeswoman Andrea Schollmann said primary schools with rolls of fewer than 176 pupils were entitled to a minimum of one full-time teacher per 25 children.

A sole-charge school also received a management-related staffing entitlement of 0.3.