Drop-outs worry Cooks

By Florence Syme-Buchanan

The Cook Islands popula

tion has plunged and edu cators are alarmed at falling school roles which they say will affect the quality of edu cation available in the country. Last year more than 2500 people left the country. The Cooks population now hovers at 16,500 compared to 22,400 at the end of 1995. The Statistics Department says the population is continuing to decline.

For the first time in a decade, the total number of school children in the Cooks has dropped to less than 5000 with the Ministry of Education forced to combine classes and amalgamate some outer island schools. There are 4917 school children in the Cook Islands this year, a decrease of 12 per cent and consultants have predicted the trend will continue until at least 2000. The biggest decline of 25 per cent has occurred in the northern group of islands.

Director of Planning and Finance Ken Matheson says at the height of the coun try’s economic crisis, when 2000 people lost their government jobs between 1995- 96, there was an immediate impact on senior classes. “Seventeen, 18 and 19-

year-olds were dropping out in large num bers. We speculate that parents were pulling the kids out to help support the

family in agriculture or fishing,” says

Matheson.

Falling roles are “alarming in the outer islands and one solution is to integrate some schools, ” he says. “But the quality of education really suffers when you have a combined class of grades one to six in one classroom.”

Matheson says other strategies taken by the Ministry to cope with the problem include enhanced distance education using electronic media, part-time teachers and multi-level teaching techniques.

The Ministry is trying the use of elec tronic media at Mauke College, but because this is so expensive, it could be some time before the concept is in use at other outer island schools. Because there are so few senior students attending outer island colleges, the Ministry of Education is finding that it is not “economically fea sible” to provide teachers for all subjects, particularly technical subjects, says Matheson.

Many senior students in the outer islands are completing their high school education by correspondence. A big drop in academic achievement at primary school level is also causing concern in the

Ministry of Education. Annual STACI tests sat by primary students in grades five to form one showed a dramatic drop in achievement during 1995 to 1996.

Although results were better last year they are still nowhere near those prior to 1995.

The morale of teachers in the Cooks was at its lowest when the country’s econ omy hit rock bottom and their desponden cy is probably the reason why academic achievement also plummeted, says Director of Audit and Quality Assurance Peter Etches.

Teachers were the hardest hit by the government’s economic reforms. Their salaries were cut by 85 per cent and not reinstated for almost a year. Many left the profession and the country, others sought voluntary retirement. This has created another problem which the Ministry has ‘band-aid’ by bringing back retired teach ers, says Etches. Of the 300 teachers in the country, over 100 are over the age of 50.

The Cook Islands Teachers Training College, which closed last year, reopens in 1999. However, no graduates will be avail able to the system until 2001, says Etches.

He says they’re also worried about the number of children dropping out of school who are under school leaving age.

Etches says this trend is most prevalent in the northern islands with some schools struggling to get children into Form 1.

Many are leaving after grade 6. Another worrying trend is the tiny number of stu dents who continue schooling until Form 7. Of the 442 students in Form 3, only 24 made it to bursary level last year. ■