Charter Schools Will Leave Students Vulnerable And Undermine Teaching Profession

The prospect of a large number of unregistered teachers employed by charter schools would leave students vulnerable and undermine the teaching profession, says Kieran Gainsford, PPTA Te Wehengarua acting president.

He was presenting today PPTA’s oral submission on the proposed charter schools legislation, being considered by Parliament’s education and workforce select committee.

Kieran Gainsford said in the United Kingdom where charter schools- called academies - dominate the education system, research found that class-based inequality was widening because students were being denied access to qualified teachers.

“In New Zealand, Limited Authority to Teach (unregistered teachers) positions are meant to be a gap filler, not a way to circumvent the professional training and registration of our teaching workforce.”

PPTA Te Wehengarua recommended in its submission that the ability for state schools to be converted to charter schools be removed from the proposed legislation.

“The conversion of state schools to charter schools would have an extreme impact on school communities.The possiblity that just a single person from a school ‘community’ could team up with a sponsor and apply to have a state school converted is very concerning.

“We also have grave concerns about the possibility of directed conversions of state schools to charter schools. The proposed legislation enables the Minister alone to direct a school to convert. This is an outrageous and unwarranted exercise of Ministerial power with the potential to affect thousands of people . There is more than enough capacity within the current sytem to address issues that arise, rather than forcing a school into a conversion process.”

The proposed conversion provisions eliminate teachers’ employment protections and remove unions’ ability to initiate for multi-employer collective agreements covering charter schools - which breaches international law.

PPTA Te Wehengarua also recommended that charter schools be required to teach the national curriculum.

“Our current curriculum works on both a national and local level. Internationally we have seen that many charter schools focus on extremely stripped back curricula and standardised or rote learning to ensure their contracts are continued. This is the opposite of innovation.”

© Scoop Media