Te Tai Tokerau reject Parata'a Funding Plans

TE TAI TOKERAU PRINCIPALS REJECT PARATA’S FUNDING PLANS

Minister Parata’s announcement to scrap the decile system of funding and link future school funding to student achievement has been roundly rejected by school principals in the North

‘This will have a devastating effect on the education of children in Te Tai Tokerau who are already getting less of the educational cake, than what they need,” said Pat Newman President of the Te Tai Tokerau Principals Association. “Well over 50% of schools up here fall into this category in comparison to 30% nationally. We know that many of our children arrive at school ill-prepared for learning,” continued Mr Newman. “We also know that Te Tai Tokerau children lag behind the rest of NZ for attending good quality early childhood or in fact any early childhood!”

‘We cannot expect that these children will achieve at the same rate as children from advantaged backgrounds and some children with severe special learning needs may never reach whatever target the Minister sets for achievement, and worse still, many of us up here know that the targets set have little educational validity!” he said. ‘ So from what the Minister has said, we will see funding withdrawn from our schools in te Tai Tokerau(Unless they are supposed Partnership/Charter Schools), the very schools that require more support because they have a higher rate of disadvantaged and challenged learners,’ he said.

“To be blunt it defies logic”, said Mr Newman, “ but my experience these days around educational decision making, usually means the less logical something is, the less evidence to back it up the more likely it is to be adopted by Wellington”

Education sector leaders have been actively pursuing ways to work alongside the Minister to co-construct a fair and equitable school resourcing formula which can better accommodate the needs of all students.

‘I find it disturbing that the Minister’s announcement today ignores once again, the requests to help shape an alternative funding system and mirrors what has already happened in the UK where poorer public schools are starved of funds to make way for private charter schools,’ said Newman. ‘The results in the UK are disastrous. The results in NZ will also be disastrous and our kids in the North deserve better,’ he said.

ENDS

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