By 3 News online staff
A new survey released today shows that more than half of New Zealand parents with dependent children think class sizes are too big.
The Post-Primary Teachers' Association surveyed 750 people and 83 percent said there should be a maximum of 25 students per class at secondary school, while nearly half said there should be no more than 20.
The results will be good news for the Labour Party, who is vowing to reduce class sizes if they get into government.
The party plans to do so by putting an extra 2000 teachers into classrooms.
Labour leader David Cunliffe has said current staffing in primary schools can be as high as one teacher to 29 students, but classes with more than 30 pupils are not uncommon.
Labour wants to progressively reduce that ratio to one teacher for every 26 students by 2018.
Meanwhile in secondary schools, Mr Cunliffe says the ratio is one teacher to 26 students – Labour wants that reduced to one teacher per 23 pupils.
However, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister says these numbers are incorrect and current primary school staffing averages out at around one teacher to 24 pupils, while secondary schools sit at around one teacher to 21 pupils.
National's education plan is to reward the best teachers and principals, rather than reducing class sizes.
3 News
source: newshub archive
