Struggling to find political traction just two months out from the election, the Labour Party has this morning announced a bold new policy that it says will reform the education system, by limiting class sizes to a maximum of 15 square metres.
Labour leader David Cunliffe, who laid out the policy in a joint press conference with education spokesperson Chris Hipkins, said that the measure aims to provide better teaching outcomes for students, by fostering a more “intimate” setting between teacher and pupil.
“It is my belief,” said Cunliffe, “as it has always been my belief, that it is my belief that we can do better, New Zealand.
“Whatever debates we might have about education in the public sphere, everyone agrees, from Chris through to myself, through to Shelly – some of you have met Shelly – that the easiest and most effective way to raise achievement in the classroom is to reduce class sizes.
“That is something that this policy does, and it is something that is written here on this piece of paper I have to read out.”
Amongst the benefits Labour claims its policy will bring about are “a renewed focus on students,” one caused by teachers’ inability to ignore them when they are literally jammed against their torso.
In taking questions on the policy, Chris Hipkins brushed off any criticism that classes of such size may present a fire hazard, saying that smaller class sizes would make fire easier to see and thus detect before it could pose a threat.
He promised that “absolutely no one” would die of fire as a result, adding that it would be much more likely they would die “of smoke inhalation.”
Prime Minister John Key has already dismissed Labour’s policy as “something” and “an idea.”
“Well look, I think most New Zealanders would agree that, at some point, we’ve all been to school,” he said. “I think we all remember it as sort of boring, really.”
Education Minister Hekia Parata said that National did “not agree” with the principle of reducing classroom sizes, and instead preferred to take the opposite approach.
“Classrooms should, for the most part, be reflective of our society,” Parata told media this afternoon, “and we should aspire to see in them the same things we aspire to see in our country at large.
“This doesn’t mean smaller, more restrictive classrooms. This actually means larger, more open classrooms, that will provide greater freedom and choice for students, so that they may wander, occasionally get lost, be unable to see the board, and get themselves stuck under a set of drawers without help, whereafter they’ll be blamed for it.”
Asked roughly when Labour would seek to start implementation of the policy, Cunliffe said that it would most likely not be immediate, and it was more probable that it would be rolled out closer to 2017 or 2018, “when we’re actually in power.”