‘Slap in the face’: Government delays roll out of reduced class sizes for schools

Some school leaders will be left with less funding than expected next year after the government pushed out its timeline to reduce class sizes.

Kyle Brewerton​, principal at Remuera Intermediate, said the changes felt like a “rug had been pulled” from under him. He will see about $50,000 less funding in 2024 than expected.

In April, the Government announced funding changes to class sizes, allowing schools to reduce the ratio from one teacher every 29 students to 1 to 28 in years 4 to 8.

It was to be implemented in stages, with funding for one teacher to every 28.5 students to kick in 2024 and the changes in full swing by 2025. Now, that stepped delivery has been pulled.

The new class size funding will start in 2025 as planned, but there won’t be increases in 2024, Education Minister Jan Tinetti said.

The money would instead go to paying for teacher’s new collective agreements.

“It impacts our entire staffing plan,” said Brewerton, head of the Auckland Primary Principals Association.

“I can’t just magic up $50,000. That’s a lot of money,” he said.

Brewerton was counting on that funding to pay for teacher aides and teacher release time. He’s not the only one.

In a recent survey, which covered 150 Auckland primary and intermediate school principals, 64% said they made financial plans for next year based on the original class size funding.

Schools were told of the change on Tuesday, in a Ministry of Education bulletin.

“I think the timing of the announcement is very late,” Brewerton said. “At the eleventh hour… [it] is a slap in the face.”

Education Minister Jan Tinetti​ said the delay in class size funding would help pay for the teacher’s recent pay rise.

“To end the teacher industrial action and resolve the collective bargaining, money needed to be re-prioritised from within the education budget.

“Delaying the reduction in class sizes allowed that funding to be reallocated,” she said.

Tinetti said unions had agreed to the change, and she emphasised that a Ministerial Advisory Group was looking into improving class sizes in the long term.

“The Government remains committed to reducing class sizes,” she said.

Mark Potter, president of NZEI Te Riu Roa, said the change was “disappointing”, but urged all political parties to support the work of the Ministerial Advisory Group.

“The number one priority teachers keep coming back to is a need for smaller classes with more teacher aides to help support students.

“We will keep advocating these crucial reductions in class size,” he said.