The Government’s policy to increase class sizes to
release funds for teacher development demonstrates a lack of awareness
of the needs of 21st Century learners, according to the School Library Association of New Zealand/ Aotearoa.
“Things
have changed since the Minister of Education was in school”, said Fiona
Mackie, President of SLANZA. “ It is well recognized that we cannot
meet the diverse needs of students now and in the future with classes of
41, such as she experienced 40 years ago”.
“School
librarians understand this as they are working at the cutting edge,
where information technology and E-learning meets the classroom”, said
Ms. Mackie. “Schools also have to meet diverse needs and these factors
combined mean that teaching from the front of the classroom to large
numbers of students just won’t make the grade any more”.
“The
Minister is also mistaken when she relies so heavily on research that
says class sizes don’t matter. While the quality of the teacher has the
most impact, the work of Russell Bishop and others demonstrates that
relationships between teacher and student make the most difference –
particularly for Maori. It clearly easier to develop those relationships
when the class sizes are smaller,” said Ms. Mackie.
“With
the changes announced by the government, schools will have to make
difficult staffing choices and some may unwisely decide to cut school
librarians rather than lose a teacher”, said Ms. Mackie. “If this
happens it undermines the goal of raising student achievement in
literacy, as well staffed school libraries have a pivotal role to play
in this. The National Standards emphasise the need to teach literacy
across the curriculum, including information and digital literacy, where
experienced librarians are the experts”.
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