Dunedin tech teaching positions in jeopardy

Dunedin Labour MPs Clare Curran and David Clark are throwing their weight behind Dunedin’s three intermediate schools which, between them, face losing nine technology teaching jobs under the Government’s plans to increase class sizes.

The Government announced as part of last week’s budget that technology staff numbers will now be incorporated into the schools teacher-student ratios.

“The changes alter the way specialist staff, including technology teachers, are funded at intermediate schools. In Dunedin that will affect 1200 Year 7 and 8 students,” Dunedin South MP Clare Curran said.

“In order to keep the technology teachers, the schools would have to increase class sizes to 40 which is simply unacceptable,”

“While the Government is patting itself on the back at getting schools to connect to Ultra-Fast Broadband, it is taking away the core part of the curriculum that prepares students for the high-tech jobs of the future.

“Doing away with this part of the curriculum will affect up to 880 jobs of technology teachers throughout New Zealand. It is a hugely important subject that is being taught at a critical time in our children’s lives,” Clare Curran said.

Dunedin North Labour MP David Clark said the schools had not be consulted and had no warning of the cuts.

“Some schools will have no choice but to cancel technology classes altogether. If the National Government goes through with this decision and Dunedin loses their technology teachers, it would be very difficult to reverse.

“The National Government must take heed of what the sector is saying about the effect these cuts will have. Children are our future, and it would be a crisis to see the demise of technology teaching in our intermediate schools,” David Clark said.

“Labour opposes the move to bigger classes,” said Clare Curran. “We are calling on the Government to cancel the working group it has set up and its policy to increase class sizes.”