The best for Marlborough

‘‘I want to see secondary schooling that ensures families stay here, confident their kids are not missing out on opportunities offered by city schools.’’

As mayor, I would like to see Marlborough become a district which provides high-calibre education that supports clever, innovative businesses which provide good quality, well-paid jobs.

While council is not the educator, it does have an interest in the future of the district’s secondary schools. It is not the role of the mayor or council to decide how education should be delivered in the classroom or even what those classrooms should look like. But it is in the community’s interest to have the best possible opportunities for our children and that’s what I hope to see delivered through the secondary school changes ahead.

Over past decades, most of the discussion about secondary schooling here has revolved around the single sex/co-ed question. Now we have an option that offers a mix – it may satisfy everyone or please no-one but the decision has been made. I suspect most parents will accept that a twin-campus college with opportunity to share classes and resources and teachers sounds rational, especially if it meets the challenge of attracting and retaining excellent staff.

Technological change is happening so quickly now that the educational environment of today may be unrecognisable tomorrow. Whatever the ministry deems right for Marlborough must also deliver to our teenagers all the opportunities that exist everywhere else in New Zealand. It’s the quality of the education that should be the first priority. I want to see secondary schooling that ensures families stay here, confident their kids are not missing out on opportunities offered by city schools. This will ensure our local economy is not losing the highly skilled, and therefore highly mobile, families who have key roles in our local workforce.

Doubtless a closer connection between secondary and tertiary levels (our NMIT) will help retain some of our young people. Easy access to tertiary training in the sectors on which our local economy is built is a no brainer. Our industries need staff – why wouldn’t we look for the most efficient way to get young people moving through secondary school into training so they’re immediately employable? There will always be a proportion of our teens leaving the region for higher education. What we can do is give them another reason to return and good schooling is one factor which attracts young families to a region.

The bottom line is that Marlborough needs good quality education and good quality employment with higher wages; choices, and reasons, for people to stay committed to Marlborough.

Marlborough Mayor John Leggett