Outrage builds on school reform
Furious principals say they will march on Parliament in protest at the most radical restructuring in 30 years, saying the proposals will ‘‘destroy schooling as New Zealand knows it’’.
But the Government’s independent school reform taskforce is offering an olive branch.
One of the report’s key recommendations was for many of the powers held by elected school boards of trustees to be handed to about 20 centralised ‘‘education hubs’’. This weekend Tomorrow’s Schools taskforce chair Bali Haque emphasised there could be scope for hubs to hand responsibilities back to boards.
Haque believed the taskforce vision was of a flexible system. If schools could demonstrate they could manage things such as property, the hub could put them back in charge, he said.
The proposal to relieve school boards of responsibility for property, HR and financial management has been well received by the Government. Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the report reflected what he often heard from schools: that boards felt illequipped to manage property, especially when problems such as leaky buildings cropped up.
The School Trustees Association and Principal’s Federation have offered cautious support to centralising some responsibilities.
However, at some of the bigger secondary schools, especially in Auckland, anger is mounting. Macleans College principal Steven Hargreaves wrote to parents and staff this week to say the proposed changes would ‘‘destroy the school system in New Zealand as we know it’’.
He joined other heads, including Auckland Grammar’s Tim O’Connor, in rejecting the proposals. Taking power from boards would create ‘‘bland, onesize-fits-all’’ institutions, Hargreaves said.
He called on parents to oppose the recommendations, and said parents had already been quick to voice their backing for him.
Parents wanted to know they could have an impact on their children’s education through the board of trustees’ parent representatives, he said.
‘‘To think that that’s going to be passed over to another faceless bureaucracy is what really worries them.’’
Over the summer break, local schools would be picking over the report in detail and identifying the key issues, Hargreaves said. A parents’ information evening would be scheduled in February and from there they would aim to get traction through the board of trustees and local MPs.
Haque said there was no intention in the report to take away the ‘‘critical jobs’’ boards have: they would retain control over teaching and would also still be in charge of the school’s nature, ethos, and priorities.
Consultation on the runs until April 7, 2019.
The changes would ‘‘destroy the school system in New Zealand as we know it’’. Macleans College principal Steven Hargreaves
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