Public cash for overseas trips

Officials have shed more light on a school’s controversial taxpayerfunded trip to Rarotonga and have issued clearer instructions to schools about spending on overseas travel.

Staff and trustees from Dannevirke’s Te Kura Kaupapa Ma¯ ori o Tamaki Nui A Rua have not responded to attempts by the Standard to contact them following an Auditor-general’s report into school spending that described the trip as of ‘‘significant’’ concern.

The decile-three school paid $42,952 for the $56,000 excursion. Just under $14,000 was contributed by those who went – 27 pupils, four parents helpers and four staff.

The Ministry of Education has now released more detail about what happened and changed guidelines to allow schools to spend public money on overseas travel, if the trip meets strict criteria.

‘‘The decision to approve the trip to Rarotonga was made by the previous board chair. We met with the new board chair and other members of the kura’s leadership team in February,’’ the ministry’s acting deputy secretary of sector enablement Susan Howan said.

‘‘The board chair assured us that school funds will not be used for such purposes again. The board and principal are also working with us to strengthen their financial processes.’’

The school had said the 2016 trip was for ‘‘educational experience and personal development’’, the Auditor-general’s report said.

Other overseas trips the Auditor-general highlighted were made by Auckland schools – a $399,104 trip to Rarotonga for 251 people from Te Kura Kaupapa Ma¯ori o Hoani Waititi Marae, which contributed to a school deficit. There was also an $82,000 trip to Korea for 21 people from Blockhouse Bay Intermediate, and a trip to Kuala Lumpur for five staff members from Manurewa West School.

In its report, the Auditorgeneral’s office said it was good the ministry had reinstated guidelines to schools ‘‘about the need to specifically fundraise for overseas travel for students as recommended in our letter to the secretary for education last year’’.

Howan said the ministry had now updated guidance to schools on rules for overseas travel.

Previously, schools were not allowed to use state funds for overseas trips, but fundraising could be used if the trips were signed off by the school board as sensitive expenditure, where they had justifiable ‘‘educational outcomes’’.

Now, if school boards approve, Crown money can be used where ‘‘the overseas travel supports student achievement [and] they have considered the proposed spending against competing priorities’’.

‘‘In some circumstances, for some students, overseas educational experiences can be justified,’’ Howan said. ‘‘But the threshold is high.’’

Examples of appropriate spending might include visits to significant cultural sites the community had a direct connection to, such as a battle where many casualties were from the school’s area, senior Ma¯ori groups visiting Pacific Islands where ancestral stories originate, or language students travelling to a country where they can be immersed in that language, the ministry says.

Schools must also consider whether travel would be more effective than a local experience or ‘‘virtual alternative’’, whether the cost is the best value of money, and, if the travel is only available to some students, if that is justifiable.

Dannevirke school stays quiet on controversial taxpayer-funded trip.