Donations threat for school camps

Donation reforms create anxiety and confusion for principals, writes Henry Cooke.

School camps could be canned because of burdensome new guidelines on what does and doesn’t count as a school donation, say some principals.

But the Ministry of Education says the new guidelines, part of the Government’s ‘‘scrapping’’ of school donations, just set out what the law has been for the past 30 years – that state education should always be free.

The Government has moved to replace school donations from next year with a $150 per-pupil grant for any decile 1 to 8 school that voluntarily stops asking parents for donations.

Doing so has required refreshed guidelines of what schools can and can’t charge for – and what should be considered a donation.

Compulsory charges cannot be levied for school camps, should they contain any part of the curriculum, according to the new guidelines. Schools should instead make clear that payments for camp are voluntary donations.

Lynmore School is the only Rotorua school above the decile cut-off for the new donations scheme.

Principal Lorraine Taylor said she would likely have to cancel her school camp next year as it was clearly part of the curriculum but she doubted enough parents would pay for it.

‘‘We won’t go on camp. If we can’t charge for camp we’ll just have to cancel them,’’ Taylor said.

‘‘The ministry neatly covers this off by saying that only school camps that are not part of the New Zealand school curriculum can be covered by parents. Which is absurd because we are a school

‘‘We won’t go on camp. If we can’t charge for camp we’ll just have to cancel them.’’ Lynmore principal Lorraine Taylor