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Covid-19 has destroyed the classrooms at Mangakahia Area School.
The rural school west of Whangārei typically has just under 100 students on its roster, from new students to Year 13.
He has lost a third of them this year. As many as 34 students have disappeared, said principal Phil Reynolds.
They have not registered elsewhere; the school knows that two-thirds of them are still in the community, but the whereabouts of the rest are a mystery.
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* Victims of the coronavirus: the hunt for students who never returned to school
Some students are expected to be lost, Reynolds said, especially in the kūmura planting and harvesting season, but typically the students will return to school once the work is done.
That has not happened this year. “They really are necessary to support the family,” Reynolds said.
He sees that as a missed opportunity.
It’s “honorable work,” he said, “but it doesn’t get them out of that kind of seasonal poverty that weighs them down.”
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Phil Reynolds said his staff will be cut from 14 to 12, which will directly affect the curriculum on offer.
The school prides itself on getting everyone who graduates through NCEA Level 2. It is about “being able to promote them in job opportunities, careers and paths that allow them to have a greater portion of the pie.”
However, the problem of seniors leaving to look for work is only part of the picture. The missing students come from all levels of the year. Reynolds said some families have said they won’t send their children back “until after Covid,” whenever that is.
Reynolds is concerned about the students who have left, but he is also concerned about those who have been left behind.
Fewer students means that the Ministry of Education will fund fewer teachers. Without teachers, the school cannot offer a full range of subjects.
Next year the school will have to reduce its teaching staff from 14 to 12. It will have to rely on Te Kura correspondence school for some subjects. That is not ideal; students find it less attractive than face-to-face teaching.
Reynolds emphasized that while Mangakahia is in a particularly difficult situation because it is so small, it is far from unique in Northland.
Hora Hora Elementary School principal and Te Tai Tokerau Headmasters Association president Pat Newman said there was a good chunk of Northland children who had not been back to school since the first closure.
annette lambly / stuff
Pat Newman said that the number of children missing school is having a big impact on funding.
For some, that was because families were concerned about contracting Covid-19, a fear that had been fueled by the mixed messages and conspiracy theories that were flying around, he said.
For others, the absence had to do with housing; families who move due to job loss or who approach whānau for lockdown and do not return.
As for funding, “it makes a big difference,” Newman said.
Every September, the Ministry of Education informs schools how many teachers will be funded the following year based on the school’s record in July.
Hora Hora in Whangārei has dropped about 27 students from a list of 400, enough to lose a full-time teacher.
But Newman estimated that more than 50 percent of a school’s expenses would be fixed costs, which were not reduced as the list and government funding did.
And teachers aren’t just classroom teachers, he said: They bring a lot of skills that aren’t easily replaced if they leave.
Whangārei Boys’ High School principal Karen Gilbert-Smith said her school was considering losing two teachers based on the ministry’s calculations, but that didn’t match the school’s estimates.
Denise Piper / Things
“Karen Gilbert-Smith, principal of Whangarei Boys’ High School, said next year will be a challenge.
Based on the number of children who chose their subjects for next year and said they will definitely return, the school estimated that it will have 1,233 students on its list.
But 33 students miss out on that in the ministry’s calculations.
Gilbert-Smith said that after the school’s review request was denied, they have no choice but to do a “staff count at the door” when students return for period 1. If that proves there are more students, staffing and funding will be adjusted – but by then it will be too late to hire a new teacher, he said.
“It’s a shame there doesn’t seem to be a more trusted model,” he said.
Like the other schools, it means that they will have cut subjects.
“It’s difficult, it’s really difficult.”
The ministry’s Katrina Casey said that education advisers were working with principals in Tai Tokerau who feel their interim role was underestimated.
“Where schools have seen a small reduction in the provision of staff rights by 2021, current roster review adjustments could address this.”
Overall, the number of teaching positions in the region is similar in 2021 compared to 2020, he said.
“High schools with fewer seniors have always found it challenging to offer face-to-face instruction in a wide range of chosen subjects,” he said.
“Te Kura offers a valuable service to help with this.”
