Tag Archives: student-teacher ratio

Austria

Kindergarten teachers protest against bad working conditions (in German)
Der Standard (11 June 2012)

On Monday, June 11, kindergarten teachers demonstrated against their working conditions. They pointed to the problem of different closing times within federal states, large teacher-student ratios, inadequate salaries, small classrooms, and too little time for preparation, extracurricular work and time with parents as policies that need to be addressed.  Of particular note was how large class sizes create a problem in inclusive teaching settings.  Moreover, Maria Zeilinger, a member of the occupation group for early childhood educators, says that individual learning cannot be provided under current group conditions.

New Zealand

PM: Minister of Education drove class size backdown
New Zealand Herald (11 June 2012)

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.”

India

Focus on RTE
Shrangi, V. The Times of India (7 March 2012)

This article reports on the drafting of the twelfth five-year plan, part of which focuses on the Right to Education Act (RTE) of 2009 (more on RTE here). Seeking to accomplish the goals of Education for All (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan), which was launched in 2001, neighborhood schools are to be established with a student-to-teacher ratio of 30:1 by 2013. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2011, “the two major obstacles have been availability of teachers and setting up of neighbourhood schools. Presently, there is a shortage of nearly five lakh teachers while about three lakh teachers, teaching at the elementary level, are untrained.”