Some parents and former teachers in Christchurch are sceptical on proposed changes to class size ratios in schools and believe challenges facing the sector are not straight forward.
Education Minister Jan Tinetti announced changes on Monday to help "improve teacher and learning outcomes", reducing classroom ratios from one teacher per 29 pupils, to 28 by 2025.
Tinetti said reducing the number of students in the classroom would allow teacher's more one-on-one time with their students.
A Murchison mother, who preferred to remain anonymous, said her child was in a small class at a rural school, but some pupils still needed extra support.
"In general, the teaching is fairly good because of [the size of the class].
"Part of the problem with big classrooms is that all kids, no matter what level they're at in the same age group, are put in together."
She doubted one less student in the classroom would make a difference.
"If there's a lot of different demographics and higher needs in that class, they probably need a couple of teachers in each class ... that would be great.
"But in the real world that's not going to happen."
Christchurch 13-year-old Amelia Preston is a year 9 student and said she was in a classroom where three teachers looked after 80 pupils.
She said there was no time for one-on-one with teachers.
"It was actually really big and noisy and the teachers couldn't really handle the kids."
Lexi Watson, 13, said the classes were "a lot of people for a teacher".
"You couldn't really have much time with the teacher."
Christchurch mother Kate Grater said there was not just one solution to make learning easier.
"I'm a parent and I want the best education for my son and it's hard.
"It'd be great to send our children to a private school and give them the best education but that's not realistic for a lot of us.
"And it's also not realistic to after you've worked a full day, to sit down with your child, who is tired and review all of this (school work)."
Father Michael Pacey thought classroom sizes had gotten smaller but teachers had been provided additional duties.
"I think the teachers do a lot more than just teach now," he said.
"Giving them the ability to do the work that they need to do in the background, to be able to teach effectively is a good thing.
"There's limited hours in the day so with the extra responsibilities there needs to be some slack given somewhere else."
Linda Askew is a grandmother who thought the changes were futile.
She said a back-to-basics approach was needed.
"Making sure that our children can actually read and write and that we pick up these little ones who can't, when they're 6 or 7, not 8, would be much better.
"Getting one more teacher ratio is not going to make much difference at all, and where are we going to find these teachers?"
RNZ spoke to retired teachers in Christchurch on Tuesday who said the government needed to do better, proposing a ratio of one teacher per 20-25 pupils.
