Zoning out – is it time for a review?

18 September 2014

Zoning out – is it time for a review?

The last few years have seen rising inequality between schools and the erosion of students’ right to attend their local school.

These are just some of the impacts of the current school zoning policy that PPTA members will be addressing at their annual conference this month.

Prepared by PPTA’s Waikato region the paper Zoning, Enrolment Schemes and Choice – Educational Apartheid? identifies unfairness and waste in the current zoning system and calls for a review, PPTA president Angela Roberts said.

The paper includes analysis of data on Auckland, Christchurch and Hamilton school enrolment zones which indicates more affluent schools often use their zone boundaries to exclude the most disadvantaged students and adopt enrolment practices to shape their intake and position in the market, Roberts said.

“This has serious implications for the responsibility of public education to promote equity. The absolute right of students to attend their local school should be central to any change,” she said.

PPTA’s annual conference runs from September 30 to October 2and is an opportunity for members to debate, discuss and vote on papers that will shape PPTA policy. Decisions are made by secondary teachers for secondary teachers.

The conference will be held at the Brentwood Hotel in Kilbirnie, Wellington and media are more than welcome to attend. It will also be webstreamed live at www.ppta.org.nz

The full papers are now available at: http://www.ppta.org.nz/events/annual-conference

PPTA 2014 Annual Conference Papers

A needs-based model of resourcing for schools - time for a national discussion?: This paper explores what “needs-based” could mean in terms of school resourcing and recommends PPTA seek to work with other organisations on how the state and integrated schools system could be resourced within a needs-based framework.

Behaviour, behaviour, behaviour - it’s a class act!: After the 2013 Annual Conference expressed concern about the way PB4L and related initiatives were operating in schools, this paper explains how these behavioural initiatives are being implemented, describes some of the challenges and recommends PPTA adopt a set of guidelines to empower branches to have more say about how behaviour management frameworks operate in their schools.

Zoning, enrolment schemes and choice - educational apartheid?: Initiated by the Waikato Region, this paper explores the issue of zoning and its influence on house prices, the movement of students to schools and the perceptions of parents. It identifies unfairness and waste in the current zoning policies and calls for a review.

PPTA industrial strategy 2015: This paper proposes a strategy for collective agreement bargaining in 2015, based on consultation with members, branch and regional officers and national executive members. It aims to test the direction the PPTA executive believes members wish it to take in preparing a claim strategy for 2015.

Demolition or restoration? - the election and our fight for the Teachers Council: This paper examines further courses of action PPTA could take to influence the shape of the Education Amendment Bill (no. 2) that aims to replace the Teachers Council with a government appointed body.

ENDS

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