Source: Radio New Zealand
Principals say the new curricululm will make teaching multi-level classes extremely difficult, if not impossible. RNZ/ Dan Cook
Primary school principals warn the government’s new year-by-year curriculum faces a huge obstacle – the fact that most schools have classes with children from multiple year groups.
They said the new curricululm insists on teaching particular content to particular year groups in strict sequence – which will make teaching multi-level classes extremely difficult, if not impossible.
They said most schools, especially small rural schools, have such classes because they are the only way to cope with the varying number of children in each year group.
The Education Ministry said it was developing advice for schools.
Principals Federation president Leanne Otene told RNZ the new English and maths curriculums introduced at the start of this year were originally organised in “phases” that covered several year groups but in October those curriculums were changed to specify different content for different year levels.
She said the year-by-year structure was also used in draft curriculums for other learning areas.
But she said that approach would not work for classes that included more than one year group of students.
“This is where the multi-year-level classroom becomes a real problem,” she said.
“I’ve got principals across the country going ‘we literally cannot teach year-by-year’ and this is not just in rural schools, this is urban schools as well.”
She said most schools had at least some multi-level classrooms and they could not avoid using them because they could not control the number of pupils in each year level.
“If we go purely year-by-year we’re going to need many more teachers in the workforce because it’s not going to work,” she said.
Principals Federation president Leanne Otene. Supplied
Otene said she was scheduled to meet Education Ministry staff on Thursday and would tell them that schools could not introduce the changes to the maths and English curriculums that were announced in October.
“We just can’t do it. Changing a curriculum at that late a date and saying that they have to be initiated on the first of January, that’s reckless. Because we just are unable to do it. It’s not that we won’t do it, it’s we’re unable to do it,” she said.
Rural Schools Association president Andrew King said at least half the country’s 1813 primary schools had multi-level classes.
He said some schools used them deliberately to foster tuakana-teina relationships but many had no choice because the number of pupils in each year group made it impossible to keep year groups in separate classes.
King said the issue was particularly acute for rural schools because they were generally very small.
“Most rural schools are going to be multi-level and I don’t just mean two year groups, you’re talking potentially a Year 1 to 4 class or a one-classroom school of Year 1 to 8 or Year 1 to 6,” he said.
King said teaching the new curriculum in those classes would be problematic and difficult.
“In a multi-level classroom now you potentially would have a theme or an inquiry topic that you can cater to the range of ages with across your class,” he said.
“Also you can do a lot of integration at the moment with other curriculum areas, which is doable in a multi-level context but when you’ve got knowledge to teach at each year level you can’t use the inquiry and integrated approach to the same degree.”
King said it would be extremely difficult for teachers to teach the new curriculums in a multi-level class.
“When you look at every aspect of knowledge across every curriculum area across every year level, it’s going to be impossible to deliver all of that.”
King said the association was working with the Education Ministry to identify solutions to the problem.
The ministry told RNZ it was working with sector representatives to develop advice for teachers.
“For those teaching in composite classrooms, there will be guidance and support for teachers to plan and teach across multiple year levels across the curriculum, particularly to make sure all students experience the breadth of topics,” it said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
