Schools to wait for funding figures
Students in Tai Tokerau, Hawke’s Bay/Tairawhiti and Bay of Plenty/ Waiariki face the greatest socioeconomic barriers to achievement under the education sector’s new Equity Index (EQI), set to be introduced next year.
While schools are now aware of their individual equity scores, they still face an anxious wait to September to see how much equity funding they will receive under the new system. However, most will see funding increased.
The index utilised 37 socioeconomic factors, ranging from parent education levels and benefit history to Oranga Tamariki notifications and student transience, to calculate an index number between 344 and 569 for each school.
This number, generated using anonymised data, represents the barriers students face to educational achievement, providing more targeted equity funding to those facing the largest barriers.
Figures released by the Ministry of Education show Tai Tokerau, Hawke’s Bay/Tairawhiti and Bay of Plenty/Waiariki has the highest average levels of deprivation – 506, 491 and 489 respectively.
Regions under the national average of 463 include Nelson/
Marlborough/West Coast (456), Otago/Southland and Wellington (450), while Auckland and Canterbury/Chatham Islands are the lowest with 444.
Pat Newman, Tai Tokerau Principals’ Association president and principal at Whangarei’s Horo Horo School – a decile 2 school under the present system, said he wasn’t surprised by the region’s showing in the data.
‘‘For the 20 odd years I have been up here, we’ve been saying that this is the actual case of schools in Te Tai Tokerau. That we are serving great communities, but they are very low in socio-economics and resources and things like that. We need help.’’
The index will replace the outgoing and, arguably, outdated decile funding model which has been roundly criticised for stigmatising schools at the lower end of the scale and incorrectly used as a measure of school quality.
Newman hoped the new system wouldn’t be used in the same way.
‘‘I hope that people don’t go down the line of saying ‘just because you’ve got a high number, something is wrong with your school’. I think parents should go and look at schools, go and see them at playtime and lunchtime before they make decisions about whether schools are good or bad – not based on equity or decile.’’
The decile system was also seen as a blunt instrument, contributing to funding cliffs where schools would see large drops between decile steps, while also influencing enrolment numbers, property values and teacher recruitment.
Index funding was far more sophisticated in its allocation of funding than its predecessor which relied upon Census data, which meant schools could wait years for demographic shifts in their area to be reflected in their level of equity funding.
The equity index received $293 million of operating and $8m of capital funding in this year’s Budget, with $75m in extra funding meaning most schools would see a funding increase next year.