New Zealand

After pushing an unpopular plan in face of educator opposition and refusing to meet with key stakeholders, the government has decided to totally reverse its class size increase policy.  Prime Minister John Key “admitted today that communicating information about the policy to change student-teacher ratios and how the Government would mitigate the impact on the worst-affected schools had not been handled well.”  Sensing that the debate with parents was being lost (one poll revealed that 79 percent of New Zealanders were against increasing class sizes), Key said, “What it risked doing was causing months of industrial action, huge amounts of anxiety from parents and children and you’ve got to ask yourself is if that’s really worth it and I think the conclusion we drew was no.”