2. Rationale

The goal of the School Staffing Review Group is to improve educational outcomes for students. To this end, the Review Group believes that the tasks and expectations of schools need to be clearly stated, that resources should be adequate and aligned to these tasks and expectations, and that schools should be free to use the resources allocated to them in ways that are locally determined.

The Review Group understands the important contribution of teaching and learning to the development of a society able to support the material and spiritual aspirations of New Zealanders. The Review Group also understands that the growing demands on schools require them to be responsive to change.

The Review Group recognises that recent changes to schools’ operational funding will lead to some improvement over time in the development of stronger ancillary and support structures for teaching and learning. In some schools there may also be increased capacity for addressing aspects of teacher staffing needs.  However, the Review Group is also strongly of the view that teacher staffing entitlement will remain the key for the adequate, fair and equitable distribution of teachers to schools throughout New Zealand. For this reason, the Review Group’s recommendations focus on teacher staffing entitlement as the most effective way to achieve the Group’s objectives.

Increasingly complex individualised curricula and societal problems have made it progressively more difficult for the pastoral and educational relationship between student and teacher to be maintained and developed. Improving educational outcomes requires more capacity for teachers to establish and improve both aspects of this relationship.  Fundamental to this is sufficient time to manage the various threads that contribute to successful student-teacher interaction, which in turn requires adequate classroom and classroom-related staffing.  A major objective is therefore to ensure that the number of teachers in the system is adequate to meet the expectations the Government has placed on the education system for the quality of education delivery expected in the classroom.

The Review Group advises that schools serving less affluent communities have proportionately greater demands placed on them in terms of pastoral and guidance care and in establishing educationally and socially successful relationships in the classroom, than do those schools in more affluent areas.  The Review Group is also aware that Mäori and Pacific students are disproportionately represented in schools serving such communities.  For this reason there is consideration given to improved guidance staffing in low decile secondary and area/composite schools.  Also, in the secondary sector the Review Group notes the strong correlation between low school decile and small school size. The provision of additional base-staffing components will therefore also assist low decile secondary/area schools. The Government’s broader strategy for reducing disparities in achievement between students from high and low decile settings can also be partly addressed through positive changes to the teacher/pupil ratios for Mäori medium education. Further improvements to primary schools, particularly low decile schools, will require additional funding.

The main emphasis in the primary sector has been placed on addressing staffing issues in smaller schools. This is because the current staffing regime does not serve small schools as well as it serves larger ones. Similarly, the redistribution of the savings from the abolition of bulk funding advantaged larger schools because of their economies of scale. In addition, the workload of teaching principals has been a longstanding cause for concern. It is therefore imperative that the role of leading smaller schools is supported to restore a traditional career path for the development of our future school leaders.

School improvement requires a culture of improvement.  This is currently recognised and reflected in school practice.  However, this culture needs further extension – at the high level through guidance from Government, and at the school level, through innovation, deliberation and professional growth.  This is fundamentally constrained where the base-staffing level is not sufficient to deliver the curriculum, administrative and pastoral demands placed upon it.

Full implementation of the Review Group’s recommendations will send a clear signal of support to the sector.  This will improve the likelihood of attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers and assist in the projection of a more positive image of the profession.