Scissors out to snip school plan
Survey suggests Govt may have to leave more power with elected boards
Radical plans to end New Zealand’s system of selfgoverning schools are opposed by almost half of all school boards, judging by an initial sampling.
As most schools return from holidays next week, the Weekend Herald surveyed board chairs of 30 schools starting with the letter M and has found 14 generally supporting the proposals, 12 generally opposed and four with mixed views.
If this pattern persists as debate develops, the Government may come under pressure to compromise, possibly leaving more power with elected school boards rather than transferring all their legal powers to proposed regional hubs.
A group of conservative secondary schools led by Auckland Grammar headmaster Tim O’Connor is gearing up to fight the proposed changes, which O’Connor says “would bring to an end the notion of the traditional secondary school in New Zealand”.
“We must ensure the Government does not proceed with this proposed attack on state education as we know it,” O’Connor has told Grammar parents in a newsletter. But the head of the taskforce proposing the reforms, Bali Haque, insists the hubs should take responsibility for all state and state-integrated schools.
“We don’t think it’s a good idea to create a dual system where some schools are deemed to be able to do it and some schools are not,” he said.
“Those schools that don’t need it also have obligations to other schools in the system, and they need to contribute their expertise to other schools. They need to be part of the system.”
The hubs, each looking after about 125 schools, would control: Appointing principals, with the approval of the board of trustees, on five-year contracts. Monitoring school quality and performance, taking a hands-on support role to replace the Education Review Office.
School property, although building maintenance and replacement could be delegated back to competent school boards.
Financial management, including approving a school’s budget, although principals would keep day-to-day control of operations grants.
Health and safety.
Approving school zones and capping numbers of out-of-zone students.
Ensuring that students with disabilities or learning support needs can attend their local schools. Student suspensions and expulsions.
The current system dates from a 1989 reform called Tomorrow’s Schools. Some school boards in the Weekend Herald survey said they feared transferring powers to regional hubs would force them to drop elements of their distinctive character such as Ma¯ori culture, Cambridge exams and school houses for teachers in rural areas.
O’Connor said Haque’s plan for hubs to appoint principals for fiveyear terms, with the ability to transfer them to other schools afterwards, would destroy the distinctive cultures of different schools.
“In order for a school to develop a culture, you need to have a leader who is going to be there for the future,” he said.
But Haque said elected school boards would still have “up to 50 per cent representation” on selection panels for new principals and would have to approve any appointment.
“We see the board and the hub working together to ensure that the parents and the community of that school get the best possible principal. It’s a support system rather than, ‘You will do this’.”
He says the taskforce has not considered whether schools would be able to keep Cambridge exams.
Schools would not lose international student revenue, school houses or “nest eggs”. He acknowledges that integrated schools own their property and more thinking is needed on how they would be affected.
A spokeswoman for Education Minister Chris Hipkins referred questions to Haque. Hipkins has not committed the Government to implementing any of Haque’s proposals, which are open for public submissions until April 7.
National Party education spokeswoman Nikki Kaye plans to start a series of public meetings on the proposals next month and said Haque’s proposals have “swung too far” away from the 1989 “Tomorrow’s
Schools” model of self-governing schools. “We are not arguing for the status quo,” she said. “But . . . the report has swung too far in terms of the concentration of power of officials.”
Haque’s task force plans to hold 31 public meetings in February and March and will run a survey on its key proposals on the Education Conversation website.