Schools vow: Resist change at all costs
Principals push back against plans to end competition. By Katie Kenny and Josephine Franks.
Five children are crammed into Gael Vickers’ office at Ruapotaka Primary School, in Point England, Auckland, where she’s been principal for 27 years. As one child heads out to play, Vickers reminds him to wear a hat. She doesn’t mind the company – it’s her chance to catch up on playground gossip.
But when the Sunday StarTimes calls, she’s also catching up on New Zealand’s biggest educational reform in almost three decades – intended to end school v school competition.
The Tomorrow’s Schools Review, commissioned by Minister of Education Chris Hipkins in April, was carried out by an independent taskforce led by Bali Haque. It promises sweeping changes to the way schools are run. There’s no evidence, Haque says, that the self-governing model of the past 30 years has been successful.
Out-of-control competition between schools and racist enrolment policies have led to ethnic and economic segregation in our education system, he argues.
The review came in a week that the independent St Kentigern College clashed with state schools including Mt Albert Grammar and Rotorua Boys’ High School, as they all competed for 1st XV players.
It was commissioned against a backdrop of principals feeling isolated and teachers unsupported. Students’ performance has plateaued and in some areas deteriorated. The Education Review Office children’s maths achievement had been ‘‘dropping alarmingly for some time’’.
As expected, the review found the current system to be failing the most disadvantaged children and young people, including those from disadvantaged homes, Taskforce leader those with additional learning needs, and Ma¯ ori and Pacific families. The gap between the students is widening.
The solution? Centralisation and collaboration, rather than competition between individual schools.
‘‘We’ve got
asystem that encourages competition and, we think, unhealthy competition,’’ Haque said. ‘‘That in our view is hugely damaging, particularly for schools in disadvantaged communities.’’
Most notably, the review proposes about 20 new education hubs to relieve local, elected boards of trustees of their powers.
Auckland Grammar School headmaster Tim O’Connor said the hubs weren’t necessary – because the competition didn’t exist. ‘‘It’s a myth that we all operate in silos,’’ he said. ‘‘Competition to me is when Rangitoto College beats us in physics.’’
The ‘‘one-size-fits-all model’’ failed to recognise the special character and culture of schools, and the fact they catered to their communities, he said. He vowed to resist the report ‘‘at all costs’’.
The proposal for five-year contracts for principals – after which time they’d move to another school in the hub – was also particularly concerning. ‘‘What gets lost is the stability, the institutional knowledge and the understanding of the culture of the place.’’
O’Connor said some structural change was needed in school governance, but ‘‘we don’t need a sledgehammer when we just need a little tap’’.
Vickers, for one, has never been worried about competing with other schools.
‘‘I don’t give two hoots what another school does, so I don’t have that problem at all.’’
‘‘We’ve got a system that encourages competition and, we think, unhealthy competition.’’ Bali Haque