Schools welcome deciles’ demise

"We hope this provides more equity for those children who really need it." Shona Oliver, Central Normal School principal

Palmerston North principals have welcomed a plan to scrap the school decile system, but they remain cautious about its replacement.

Education Minister Nikki Kaye recently announced deciles would be replaced with a new ‘‘Risk Index’’, to better target funding to schools that need it the most.

Deciles, based on the economic wealth of communities pupils came from, have been widely criticised for exposing schools to prejudices about their quality.

The data used for the risk index would be anonymised, and parents would not be able to judge potential schools on their place within the risk index, as they can now with the decile system.

Freyberg High School principal Peter Brooks said the end of deciles was ‘‘excellent news’’.

‘‘It... recognised that schools that drew on certain communities had more challenges to overcome than others, so more funding was required. But it was a blunt tool and it became a labelling device.’’

But, it was impossible to say if the new system would directly benefit his school until more details were released, Brooks said.

The risk index score will be a total of each school’s pupils’ scores from a socio-economic equation that estimates how likely they are to pass NCEA level two.

The equation is based on 16 factors, including income, ethnicity and beneficiary status.

Kaye has said the new ratings will not be made public, as deciles were. However, Brooks said parents did need measures for schools that would give a clearer picture of their performance.

‘‘They should be able to see clear and objective measures of progress.

‘‘We need to get rid of the perception a 95 per cent pass rate in NCEA at a school means anything.

‘‘Without data on the level of these students at entry, they are meaningless measures of the quality of a school.’’

Central Normal School principal Shona Oliver also wanted more detail and was ‘‘hoping’’ the index would be more effective.

The school has a special needs unit and Oliver said she was unhappy with the way the decile system ‘‘labels schools and does not necessarily meet the needs of specific children or groups of children’’.

‘‘We hope this provides more equity for those children who really need it.’’

Awapuni Primary School is decile two - the second lowest economic score.

Deciles could be turning families elsewhere, principal Stephen Soutar said.

‘‘One year, parents who came from a high-decile school... asked what decile we were. Their response was ‘oh, that means it’s a bad school’.’’

After he explained what the ratings meant, the parents did send their child to the school, but other parents may not ask.

Ross Intermediate principal Wayne Jenkins said the current system was ‘‘crude’’ and no longer reflected actual need, but the stigma around schools drawing pupils from poorer areas would remain.

‘‘The ministry [should] guarantee schools this is not a move to, in the long term, reduce educational funding through reducing the number of risk factors.

‘‘They say no school will be worse off, and also say many schools will be better off.

‘‘However, there is no new money being introduced based on what we were told at the consultation.’’

He recommended parents visit schools to get a feel for what would meet their child’s needs.

Kaye said more engagement was needed, but the system would likely be introduced in 2019 or 2020.

Decile funding ‘‘accounts for less than 3 per cent of a school’s resources’’, a statement from Kaye’s office said.