Close more schools, says principal

The downward slide in Dunedin's school rolls during the past decade appears to have been reversed marginally, but one Dunedin principal believes there are still unviable schools with low rolls in the city, which Education Minister Anne Tolley should consider closing.

Despite the closure of three schools in the past year in Dunedin, recently released March roll return figures show the number of pupils has grown from 13,892 in March 2010 to 13,924 in March this year.

While the city's rolls showed signs of bottoming out and bouncing back, College Street School principal Gary Tenbeth believed there were still a number of schools which Mrs Tolley should look at.

His school is one of two in South Dunedin which have been earmarked for closure because there were 620 surplus pupil places at Macandrew Intermediate, Calton Hill, Caversham, College Street, Forbury and St Clair schools, representing 39% of the schooling network.

The schools had lost a fifth of their pupils during the past decade and demographic projections showed no significant rise in pupil numbers over the next few years.

The ministry had therefore recommended the closure of College Street and Forbury Schools because roll declines led to reduced funding, reduced staffing and fewer educational options for pupils in the area.

Mr Tenbeth said Mrs Tolley's handling of the situation had been most appropriate, and he believed other communities in the city could benefit from her intervention. He was aware his views on school sizes were controversial among his peers, but stood by his belief that small schools were, in many cases, not good for primary education.

"I can't see the sense in small schools. I'm aware that a larger school has the ability to produce a better quality of education for its pupils in terms of having a greater resource pool.

"An example is sports teams. Sports is part of their education, but it's hard to have a rugby team with only six kids at the school."

He believed there were many empty classrooms in schools in North Dunedin and on the Peninsula.

"Schools have to maintain them at the taxpayers' expense.

"It's not the schools' fault that their rolls are declining. It is simple demographics.

"It's a fact of life that there are less children in Dunedin than there have been in the past."

He believed there were other schools which could be, and should be, closed in Dunedin.

"The ministry has a clear roll in stepping in to facilitate the process. It's too hard for parents or the community to close their schools. That's the ministry's responsibility."

Overall, the March roll return figures showed Otago's school rolls had increased in the past year from 29,563 to 29,800.

This was driven by increases in rolls in Dunedin, the Taieri, Central Otago and the Lakes District.

Otago Primary Principals Association (OPPA) president and Macandrew Bay School principal Bernadette Newlands believed the minor recovery was due to the significant influx of pupils from Christchurch following the 6.3-magnitude earthquake in February this year.

She said if the Christchurch earthquake had not happened, Dunedin's school rolls would have continued to decline.

"They would have been down again, but not drastically."

Mrs Newlands declined to speak on behalf of the OPPA, but said her personal feeling was that the responsibility of closing schools should still be with the community, not the Ministry of Education.

"Schools can be successful, no matter what their size.

"If schools can balance their books and maintain their buildings and provide quality education, then they are still viable.

"I think if the community believes their school is not viable anymore, they have the power to close it, and it's definitely preferable that they do it this way," she said.