Students go extra mile for schooling

They are Christchurch’s moonshot children, travelling thousands of extra kilometres every week to avoid their local high school.

Students travel a total of 171,000 kilometres a day getting to Christchurch schools, but would save 71,000km a day if they went to their nearest school, a new study has found.

The 71,000km daily saving, which is four times the distance from Christchurch to London, comes to about 355,000km of extra travel a week – close to the 384,000km distance to the moon from Earth.

University of Canterbury researcher Andrew Devonport used data from the Ministry of Education showing addresses for the 18,768 secondary school students in Christchurch and where they went to school.

He found that each high school student travelled an average of 7km a day to school and back. The average for state schools was 6.3km, for state integrated schools it was 9.3km and the private school average was 9.8km.

If all students attended their nearest school, the average would be 4.14km.

The extra kilometres of travel equated to about 156 kilograms of CO2 emissions per day, Devonport calculated.

The report also found there was no link between a school’s NCEA achievement rates and how many of its students came from outside the school’s zone.

Devonport said parents needed more information to make better decisions about where to send their child.

‘‘The data used in this research was only available on request from NZQA. As a result, parents may be relying on potentially unverified and anecdotal information to form a perception of school quality when choosing a school for their child,’’ he wrote in the report.

‘‘If parents exercise choice when sending their child to school in the absence of easily understandable statistical information, they could potentially rely on stereotypes, prejudices or misinformation to make their decision.

‘‘These results provide some evidence to the conclusion reached in previous research that parents avoid their closest school if there are perceived quality issues with it.’’

Devonport also calculated which school rolls would grow if pupils attended their nearest school, effectively highlighting which schools were being bypassed by parents.

Linwood College, Mairehau High School and Hornby High School would all see their rolls swell by more than 200 per cent.

Mairehau High School principal Harry Romana said it was tricky to overcome perceptions of schools in the eastern suburbs.

‘‘Parents have perceptions about different sorts of schools. There are seven schools in the east. They are all fantastic schools. I have no issue with a student passing my gate and attending a school down the road.

‘‘I do have an issue when they drive from the east to some place right out of our region in the west. That has an impact on the community.

‘‘You want children to have the opportunity within their own local areas to get a quality education. That is what we all want.

‘‘There is no real requirement to go to the other side of town because of perception.’’

Canterbury West Coast Secondary Schools Association president Phil Holstein said it helped the local community if people attended their closest school.

‘‘I still like to think that the local school is the foundation of a community. When you are close to your school, it must be helpful.

‘‘Everyone is closer together and it strengthens our community. The school is the focus and it brings people together.’’