About half the 2,200 public primary schools are in the country and have one, two, or three classrooms. In the smallest of them about a dozen children are taught by one teacher. It is scarcely possible to travel far in New Zealand without seeing at least one small school, often set among old trees, with the teacher's house close by. Indeed, the rural school is at least as familiar and accepted a part of the New Zealand scene as the dairy factory or the district hall. Thousands of New Zealanders climbed the first steps of the educational ladder in what used to be called “backblocks schools”, and many children are in country schools today, though good roads, better transport, and the radio have helped to reduce their isolation. Over the years, New Zealand teachers have developed methods of teaching groups of classes in one classroom to an extent that has given the Dominion in this respect a reputation beyond her shores. In the normal schools attached to each of the seven teachers' colleges are a number of model country schools in which students aiming to become primary-school teachers can observe, and have some practice in, the complexities of running a small school. Country schools get the same equipment pro rata as urban schools and a similar measure of supervisory assistance, and — as the salary scales are so devised that the majority of teachers are required to spend a period of service in the country — an equitable share of the teaching force. The passion for equality of educational opportunity has produced another now familiar feature of rural New Zealand — the school bus — which collects children from comparatively remote districts and brings them to more convenient or central points for their schooling. In fact, school transport consists of over 2,000 separate services which have led to the demise of many small back-country schools (the number of one-teacher schools in 1921 was 1,448; in 1962 it was 451) and to the appearance of consolidated schools, such as those at Tapawera and Hunterville. For children living on high-country runs, near lighthouses, or in remote bays, the Correspondence School (in Wellington) provides lessons by post and supplements them by radio broadcasts.

In the bigger country centres, and in the towns and cities, larger primary schools are to be found. Though some have enrolments of well over 600 pupils, education boards try to plan ahead so that full primary schools (those taking pupils through the primer classes and standards to Form II) will rarely have more than a maximum of 13 classes and a total enrolment of 520 children. If primary schools become much larger than this, children tend to lose something of the vigorous community life that is possible in a neighbourhood school, while personal supervision and help by the head teacher grows increasingly difficult.

A primary school is basically a set of classrooms, each of which is a “general purpose room” where a group of up to about 40 children has to work at nearly all the prescribed studies. In the newest schools the classrooms average about 760 sq. ft. in area, but most older rooms are smaller. In addition to the classrooms, there are administrative rooms (offices for the head teacher and the clerical assistant, and a staffroom), a room used for medical inspections of the children by school medical officers (also used as a sick room), some storage space, cloakrooms, and toilets. The school may have a hall and a small, shallow pool in which children are taught to swim, both of which would be paid for by local contributions subsidised by the Government. Many schools have a dental clinic in the school grounds.