The Government has confirmed details of the increase in the teaching workforce, Education Minister Trevor Mallard announced today.

Trevor Mallard said new staffing orders would include cuts to the maximum average class sizes in some schools. Schools will be advised of their staffing entitlements for 2002 next month after each school's provisional roll for next year had been confirmed.

Trevor Mallard said the changes to the staffing orders meant there would be an extra 380 full time teacher equivalent (FTTE) teacher positions next year. This is 30 more than we first estimated the improvements would amount to.

"When these are added to the 160 new equivalent positions the Government delivered this year, the cumulative effect will be an ongoing increase of 540 FTTEs in total school staffing since 2000," he said.

"These position are in addition to the extra teachers required to keep pace for roll growth."

>From 2002, extra staffing entitlements will be:

· 0.1 Full Time Teacher Equivalent (FTTE) for management base staffing in all schools (primary, intermediate, middle, area, secondary, special); · up to 0.4 FTTE in curriculum base staffing for schools with students in years 9 to 13; and · a reduction in the maximum average class size from 28 to 27 for schools with students in years 1 to 8 and rolls less than 160.

Most primary schools will gain an extra 0.1 FTTE, while most secondary and area schools will benefit by up to 0.5 FTTE. Some small non-rural schools with students in years 1 to 8 will gain up to 1.0 FTTE because of the reduction in the maximum average class size.

Trevor Mallard said further staffing increases would be considered for 2003, as part of the usual processes for the Budget next year. "The Government will continue to be guided by the recommendations from the school staffing review in providing staffing improvements in future years. However, any further improvements will depend on fiscal conditions at the time, " Trevor Mallard said.

Ends

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>