A school in a rural New Zealand that has no students has pledged to stay open for as long as possible in case a new pupil wants to enrol.
Tuturumuri school in Wairarapa in the North Island has been without any children for the last term and has no new children scheduled to start in the new year.
Teachers say the lack of students is down to families moving out of the area as the region’s farming industry contracts.
However, the school’s board has said it won’t give up just yet, and will use its savings account to pay three staff so it can remain open for the coming term.
If they still don’t have any enrolments next year, the plan is to buy a bus so children can be taught in the nearest town, 35km away.
Charmaine Potter, who works as a teacher’s aide at Tuturumuri, said there were benefits to attending small schools. “I have had the beauty of seeing what a lot of one-on-one teaching can have on the children and the classroom, especially when they can get lost in some of the bigger schools,” she told the New Zealand Herald.
“It is kind of nice when you are in a little school with a small amount of students and you can actually spend that time helping them and watching them grow and learn.”
Tuturumuri school had 22 students five years ago, but numbers have dwindled steadily since then.
Any new students would get the highest staff-to-student ratio in the country – and a heated indoor swimming pool.
