LOCAL SCHOOLS UNITE AGAINST EDUCATION REFORM

Owairoa Primary School, along with our COL [ Community of Learning ] partner schools, Pigeon Mountain Primary,
Bucklands Beach Primary, Mellons Bay Primary, MacLeans Primary, Bucklands Beach Intermediate and Macleans
College, are strongly opposed to the Government’s proposed changes to the education system.

These proposed big changes are outlined in the report by the Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce document
entitled “Our Schooling Futures: Stronger Together.
https://conversation.education.govt.nz/assets/TSR/Tomorrows-Schools-Review-Report-Dec2018.PDF

Principal Alan McIntyre will be joining Board of Trustees members, teachers, parents of the school and the wider
community at a meeting this Thursday aimed at raising awareness of the proposal, which if accepted will be
“catastrophic” for the New Zealand education system.

Under the proposal, led by former Pakuranga College Principal Bali Haque, Boards of Trustees (and therefore the
community) will lose their autonomy and influence over their local schools.

The report proposes that another layer of unnecessary bureaucracy, known as an Educational Hub, will be created
by the Ministry of Education to make all major decisions relating to the schools in its catchment. Each Hub will be
responsible for 125 schools.

This will mean that a team of bureaucrats will be given significant power to make all decisions around the education
of our students without any meaningful oversight by the community.

The aim of the report is to improve equity between low and high decile schools and to help poorly performing
schools struggling with governance.

Board of Trustees Chairman, Bruce Howard, says the key problems with the proposal are:

It removes the democratically elected Board of Trustees and replaces it with bureaucrats. Communities will
lose their influence and say over how schools are run. Is that something we are happy about for Owairoa
Primary School?

Loss of funding. School donations may be capped and the Minister of Education has hinted that International
Student numbers may be limited or scrapped altogether. This will be so devastating for our school and will
mean high decile schools like ours will struggle to provide good quality facilities and teaching. We will be
unable to fund the majority of our 12 Teacher Aides and a number of Specialist Teacher positions within the
school if our ability to raise funds from International Students income is taken from us.

It does not address the chronic shortage of teachers due to inadequate pay and poor conditions. Do you
wish to have your child’s class teacher changing during the year as Principals and Teachers continue to leave
their roles in droves?

The Education Hubs plan to take teachers away from schools, and place them in other schools who need
better teachers. Are you happy that our trained staff are taken from our classes and used to prop up other
schools.? In a teacher shortage situation, where will the replacement teachers come from? The Hubs will
also make the staff and Principal appointments, a role that is currently undertaken by our Board of Trustees.
 Tightly enforcing school zones will stop parents being able to choose what school is right for their children.
Think about the implications for you and your family if you are currently an out of zone enrolment. What will
happen when you wish to apply for an out of zone placement at Intermediate or High school. You won’t
have a choice.

A small minority of schools [ 6% ] are struggling with governance. If that is so, the question is why penalise
the other 94% of schools who have good management and governance in place?

We believe schools should be given the choice about whether or not to opt into services from an Education
Hub. The majority of schools are performing extremely well and do not need or want this additional
administrative and financial burden.

The Board of Trustees is encouraging all parents to send in submissions about the proposed changes and this needs
to be done urgently before the close off of submissions on 7th April, 2019
We have been asked a number of times about how parents can engage around the Tomorrow’s Schools debate and
consultation.

We are suggesting that you use the following means for sharing your feedback and participating in the ongoing
conversation around the proposed reforms.

Online survey (available in a number of languages)

https://consultation.education.govt.nz/tsr/survey2019/

Written submissions can be emailed to

tomorrows.schools@education.govt.nz

Contact our local Member of Parliament, Simeon Brown

simeon.brown@national.org.nz

Contact the Minister of Education Chris Hipkins

Chris.hipkins@parliament.govt.nz

To get further information on the proposed changes you may also wish to attend an information evening about the
Educational Reforms coming up this Thursday.

EVENT: Tomorrow’s Schools Proposals

WHEN: Thursday 21st March at 7pm.
WHERE: Macleans College Auditorium
ATTENDING: Simeon Brown, MP for Pakuranga, and Nikki Kaye, National’s Education Spokesperson

ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND