Spike in Students in Tauranga Schools

Over the past year, schools in Tauranga have experienced a significant spike in student numbers, reaching up to 98 per cent of the official classroom capacity. Wellington and Hamilton schools utilized 95 per cent of their ministry-provided teaching space in the middle of last year. In Auckland, the rate was 89 per cent, in Christchurch 91 per cent and in Dunedin 82 per cent.

The Education Ministry explained that the capacity figures were based only on the classrooms that it provided and they did not necessarily mean that a particular school was overcrowded. It said the roll capacity figure increases the number of students a school should be able to accommodate in ministry-owned teaching spaces. “Roll capacity is used as a guide for planning purposes to determine which schools might require additional property.” The ministry has been building new schools and additional classrooms in Tauranga for some time.

However, Matt Skilton, the President of Western Bay of Plenty Primary Principals Association, said principals were struggling to find rooms for their students. Skilton said they were all experiencing the same thing - lack of space and constant sort of number eight, Kiwi attitude of trying to work out solutions, so, staffrooms, libraries, halls, break-out spaces are being turned into classrooms. He highlighted that a number of new school buildings had gone into growing areas such as Papamoa, but schools in other parts of Tauranga were experiencing a new wave of growth from in-fill housing and demographic change.