Struggling schools need ‘genius’ solution

Outside Oranga School was parked a big ute, with two flags flying: one Tongan, one Samoan. Yesterday was the big multicultural festival at the Auckland primary school, where half the roll is Pasifika. It was the perfect warm-up for last night’s big rugby league game. Everyone was included: the show started with kapa haka and finished with a sequin-bedazzled Bollywood dance performance.

The Scottish country dancing group was led in by bagpipers. The country and western line dancers waved their cowboy hats. And during the Tongan group’s performance, proud mums bedecked their children with money as is traditional.

The paths and ramps smoothed for children’s wheelchairs were walked by hundreds of neighbours and family members, making their way up to the food stalls, where Cook Island chop suey vied for our money with Spanish paella.

This is a school that does not enforce a zone; there is no pupil who has to be turned away – and that is what those of us with children at Oranga would expect.

Independent schools may choose to take only those pupils whose parents can afford their fees; most state schools are funded to provide an education for all.

At least, that is the case until a pupil should turn up who poses such a physical risk to other pupils and staff that a school cannot safely manage them in a classroom.

That, it seems, is the view taken by Christchurch’s Woodend School, in expelling a 9-year-old high-functioning autistic boy this week.

Christian Cosgrove was categorised as ‘‘genius’’ by a psychologist this month, but as all involved in the education sector know, brilliance can go hand-inhand with special needs.

Although the school has not yet commented on the expulsion, it seems the final straw was when he ‘‘lashed out’’ at others.

The challenge for small schools in managing pupils with serious behavioural issues and special needs is enormous. They are reliant on specialist teaching aides funded by the ministry, but often it takes a long time to navigate the bureaucracy to get the necessary support.

In principle, most of us would say state schools should be equipped to teach children with special needs. But most of us would also draw the line when our own children’s safety is endangered.

School principals and boards are sometimes caught between a rock and a hard place, and the decision to expel Christian Cosgrove must have been an immensely painful one.

That is why everyone involved – Woodend School, its community and Christian’s family – will welcome new education minister Chris Hipkins’ acknowledgement that special needs education is under-resourced and teachers aren’t provided enough training.

Talk, of course, is cheap. The new Government has done a lot of talking, acknowledged a lot of funding shortfalls across health, education and social services.

But the crunch will come when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern decides just what the priorities are; which of her big-noting ministers will get Christmas presents. She said this week that the Government had done its own costings of the policies and was confident it could deliver all it had promised. All would be revealed, she said, by the end of the year.

It’s to be hoped that such things as a basic school education for all, irrespective of gender, ethnicity and disability, will make Santa’s list.

And yes – that does mean irrespective of whether kids have been good or bad.