New North Island classrooms ease pressure on teaching space
Photo:
RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod
The Government has announced 32 new classrooms for the central North Island, including four at a school facing pressure to convert their library to meet demand.
Education Minister Erica Stanford made the $33 million investment announcement at Hamilton East School, a primary school with a roll of about 533 students.
Hamilton has been
New Zealand's fastest growing city
for the last couple of years.
Hamilton East School principal Philippa Wright said she was under considerable pressure to use the library as a classroom to deal with school growth.
"It's actually used all day, not just as a library, but also as a safe space for some of our students with high needs," she said.
Last year, RNZ reported about
students at Hamilton's Fraser High School
who were being taught in the library.
Wright said she would encourage other schools to push back on pressure from the Ministry of Education to use libraries as classroom space.
"My point is we are developing readers, so we need a place for them to read."
She pointed out closing libraries in schools didn't help meet the Government priority of improved literacy.
Stanford said schools having to use library space for classrooms was concerning.
"It starts with a library and then, the next minute, they are in staffrooms, because of the lack of classroom space - but that's what today is all about. It's about the 8000 extra student places that we delivered through this budget."
Education Minister Erica Stanford is welcomed to Hamilton East School.
Photo:
RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod
Stanford said the ministry was dealing with a backlog of need, but every budget, they put in more new roll-growth classrooms.
Along with the four new classrooms at Hamilton East, two classrooms will be built at Waipawa School in Hawke's Bay, three at Maungatapu School in Tauranga, two at Te Kauwhata Primary School in Waikato, two at Kawerau South School in the Bay of Plenty and 19 at Taihape Area School, as part of a major redevelopment of that campus.
Construction on the new classrooms will begin over the next 12 months.
"We are powering up efficiencies in school property delivery, so more schools, communities and children benefit sooner," Stanford said. "The use of standardised building designs, offsite manufacturing and streamlining procurement have lowered the average cost of a classroom by 28 percent, allowing 30 percent more classrooms to be delivered last year, compared to 2023.
"We will continue to drive this down, so more Kiwi kids can thrive."
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