June 16, 2022
Covid anxiety swells remote classes
The country’s largest school is facing a huge increase in its roll because of the pandemic.
Chief executive Mike Hollings says Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, formerly known as the Correspondence School, will deal with about 29,000 students this year – 40 percent of them Māori.
Students have to be referred to Te Kura or meet strict criteria.
The recent increase is from students who are not attending school because they have high levels of anxiety about Covid-19, they have been disengaged from their schooling during the pandemic, they are escaping bullying, of they can’t be taught particular subjects because their school doesn’t have the teachers.
He says Te Kura has done a lot of work on its curriculum, including strong kaupapa Māori-based learning, and that combined with its experience delivering remote lessons means it is the right option for many tauira.
“What we’re able to do is make the learning they do a lot more relevant based on what their passions and interests are. We’ve got greater flexibility, we’ve got economics of scale, we’ve go a huge number of resources and we can easily find a programme of learning that is going to make it an exciting experience for the students,” Mr Hollings says.
Te Kura got an additional $15.1 million over four yeas in Budget 2022, which will help it cope with growth