Teacher training programme cuts staff

4.00pm

Twenty-eight jobs have gone at Massey University's College of Education in Palmerston North because fewer people want to study primary school teaching.

College pro vice-chancellor James Chapman said today primary teaching was now a less-attractive study option for many reasons. The issues were national, and needed government attention to resolve.

"Massey's is not the only college of education affected in this way," he said.

Demographic dips meant fewer primary-aged children, and thus fewer teachers were needed across the country. Most rural areas were facing school closures or amalgamations.

But Professor Chapman said there could be a good outcome if the Government used this "demographic breathing space" to lower class sizes.

"We could use this demographic trend to do a little more to improve literacy and numeracy in our knowledge economy," he said.

How teachers were taught should also be reassessed. New Zealand was one of the few developed nations to cram primary teacher education into a three-year course, he said.

Other countries required four years of study, and Canada five years.

"... this would be an ideal time for the Government to move to a four-year degree training programme," Prof Chapman said.

The job losses at the college were not redundancies, he said. Staff in the affected areas had been invited to consider early retirement, and 28 had chosen to go. Each had left with an individual payout based on their salary and years of experience.

Initially, the college wanted to "reduce" only 15 positions in areas where student numbers had dropped but more staff wanted to go.

The extra 13 places created by 28 leaving meant in future the college could employ more staff in areas where enrolments are expanding -- secondary and early childhood teaching, distance learning, post-graduate studies and a new four-year degree in speech language therapy at Massey's Albany campus.

- NZPA