Politics a ‘dream job’ for Parata, but it came with a cost

As Education Minister Hekia Parata prepares to leave the halls of Parliament this year, she says it will forever be on her record that 2012 was her ‘‘annus horribilus’’.

Looking back on her last five years at education’s helm, Parata said she learnt a lot from the events of that year – Christchurch earthquakes, Novopay and the class sizes U-turn.

‘‘I don’t know that they were missed opportunities but, certainly, they were significant learning events for me.

‘‘Without sounding defensive, I didn’t cause the Christchurch earthquakes so I don’t think any minister was prepared for how to deal with that scale of response.

‘‘The horrendous Novopay crash, which had been eight years in the making, was a bit like musical chairs – the music happened to stop and I was holding that parcel.

‘‘Oh, and also the class sizes – people have forgotten the history of that – we were coming out of the GFC, we needed money to put into raising the quality of teaching, which we have gone on to do.

‘‘That seemed a way to do it when we were so cash strapped – clearly it wasn’t a popular thing.’’

Speaking for the first time about her decision to leave Parliament, Parata said stepping down was ‘‘both really difficult and really easy’’.

‘‘It’s really difficult in that I love this job, honestly, this is a dream job. I’m absolutely as passionate and ambitious for it as I was on day one. What’s difficult about this is . . . you get to implement the ideas that you have, you get to persuade your colleagues that this is where you should put $356 million or whatever . . . I’m working with a Cabinet I admire and respect – I like them – I really enjoy working with these guys.

‘‘And a caucus by the way that you know they’re hungry for your role so you better be performing because these guys are eminently capable of stepping into your shoes.’’

But the political life also comes at a cost.

‘‘We work long hours, and I’m a 200 per cent person anyway, but in this whole time my girls have grown up, left school and graduated from university.

‘‘I want to spend a bit more time with them as young adults.

‘‘I’m not entirely sure they want to spend as much time with me as I want to spend with them,’’ she chuckles. But the real driver to leave was that she had overseen a lot of change and ‘‘it was time for somebody else’’.

‘‘Five years of me is probably enough, and it’s time for a fresh set of hands, eyes and ears and relationships, and I’ll just genuinely be very grateful I’ve had this opportunity.’’

But it’s not game over yet for Parata – she has until May 1 when her tenure as education minister will end – to push through the last few pieces of work.

The priorities are legislation that will transform the education sector for the first time in 30 years, complete the first phases of the decile review, which is a formula for the way schools are funded and the new learning system for special education support.

One thing that will change under legislation is the Government being able to intervene in failing schools earlier. ‘‘Too often the schools struggling the most are the most resistant to getting the assistance they need.’’

At the moment the only interventions are a statutory manager and the board of trustees being replaced with a commissioner – ‘‘those are pretty strong interventions’’. Instead the Ministry of Education will be able to issue a performance notice and notify a school of what the concerns are and find a way to resolve them.

Parata also wants to lock down a formula for measuring the number of disadvantaged children in a school to replace the current decile system.

She is also keen to put together a support package for schools that are having trouble with the management and financial decisions they are making.

But Parata accepts some schools are better at producing results with the resources and funding they have and it is about helping those who need it.

‘‘There are real stresses and challenges on schools, and yes, we have families and individual kids who are particularly challenging ... the vast majority of schools are able to deal with those and do it within the funding and staffing they’ve got.’’ – Fairfax NZ