by Catherine Delahunty
Yesterday, Education Minister Anne Tolley revealed that the Government wants to close Aorangi School in Christchurch. The school board have come out fighting, vowing to resist the process and suggesting that there were serious flaws in the decision-making process.
I have visited Aorangi School (incidentally, John Key’s old school!) in my capacity as Green Party Education Spokesperson and found it to be a good school with strong community support. The Green Party is vehemently opposed to its closure.
The proposed closure is particularly concerning given that Aorangi School provides the only Maori language unit in north Christchurch, which was developed with the support of Ngai Tahu.
The Minister says “a new bilingual unit can be established in the area” but a unit like this can’t just be re-opened down the road at another school. It takes a long time to build and nurture tangata whenua relationships like Aorangi School has done.
When I visited the school there were also many children from refugee and migrant families who were clearly getting good support and a sound education. These children told me how much they like being at a school with 90 pupils and how important respect for different cultures was in their school. Closing the school will disrupt their learning and could have long-term effects.
It seems to me that the process followed to assess Aorangi School has been deeply flawed. At the last minute, the school has been told the proposed closure is for educational reasons, when all along the underlying issue appeared to be its relatively small size and the cost of a much-needed upgrade.
Rather than investing in upgrading a school which has developed strong community relationships, the Government is opting for a slash and burn approach.
Published in Environment & Resource Management by Catherine Delahunty on Thu, October 1st, 2009
More posts by Catherine Delahunty | more about Catherine Delahunty
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Chopper Tolley really is a poor excuse for a Minister. What’s John Key got to say about this . . . oh, yeah, he’s on holiday.
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Lots of education-related posts today!
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Of course, under a voucher system this would not be a bone for politicians to try and score points over. If it were a good schools, lots of parents would send their children there and it would remain open. Otherwise, it would improve or close down.
Or do you think you know better than local parents of hundreds of NZ schools?
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wat dabney says, “Of course, under a voucher system this would not be a bone for politicians to try and score points over…. ”
Well from my reading of the situation they would still close the school because the buildings need an upgrade. The issue is the present pupils, who have special language needs, will have their learning disrupted and this could have long-term effects.
Regards vouchers, wat, this is simplistic thinking. Vouchers can only work in high population density areas and if the parents are well informed plus understand what is the best for their children’s educational development. A University of Canterbury longitudinal study found that at age 25 more pupils from co-education state schools were in higher paying jobs and more satisfied with their lives than pupils from single sex private schools.
To put it simply, wat, if you went by the judgement of that Top Gear J.C. you would buy a Ferrari, but if you obtained a reliability history of Ferraris and Porsches you might choose a Porsche because it is far more reliable. Of course you may still choose a Ferrari because status is the most important criterion for you just like many parents who send their children to private schools.
Friends of mine went to a lot of effort to get their son into a prestigious private school. After a year they withdrew him because of bullying and poor teaching. He has just completed a Phd. in electronic engineering at Standford University at the age of 25 after obtaining a scholarship.
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The question is whether vouchers could work for us in places where the population density might support it, and I have to say that the Swedes have made a reasonable effort at getting this to work. The objection I have is that the advantages of having wealthy parents extend beyond the school grounds. Kids who have network access and computers at home have a hell of an advantage these days. More basic issues like getting a decent meal Equalizing that is part of the job too, but it could work.
BJ
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Yes bjchip
The boy I mention who has a Phd. in electronic engineering at Standford University at the age of 25 is a case in point. Instead of spending money on private schools they bought him a top performance computer and printer plus online resources. Also they enrolled him in night school to do University Entrance which he passed at the age of 15. This also shows the knowledge and understanding of what a child needs depends largely on the parents being well informed.
E
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Well, MIT is putting a lot of coursework online now. Free. The texts are a problem, but this would be a good starting point for anyone.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/intro-courses/introcourses/index.htm
BJ
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BJ,
As ope who does up computers to give away, the cost is actually pretty low for a household to get a computer.
I pick them up for next to nothing ($70 to $80 for a P4) and with a 17″ CRT monitor for $20 to $30 you have a cheap but more than adequate computer (usually throw in extra RAM to get more grunt).
In fact many businesses will give them away for nothing if they are upgrading.
Reformat the hard drive, put XP on (if you phone for activation Microsoft are pretty good) and load old copies of Office 97 or unused copies of Works (freely available as they were issued with just about every PC sold and never used) and you are away.
Replacement CD/DVD drive from DS are roughly $100 and you get enough free software to play DVD.s
Not to mention the free openoffice suite if MS office is not an option.
Have supplied all grandkids and numerous family friend kids with free computers to get them started.
One 6 year old is doing amazing stuff with simple programmes like MS Paint. Things I didn’t know it would do.
Sure, internet access is not cheap but at the monthly cost of just two bottles of wine, not totally out of the reach of most people.
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- “Vouchers can only work in high population density areas… ”
How so? If there’s a bad school in a small town, at least with vouchers there’s some possibility that the threat of competition leads to it improving. But with a state monopoly, no chance.
At least low density areas won’t be any worse off, whilst the system as a whole gets the benefits of the voucher incentives.
- “…and if the parents are well informed plus understand what is the best for their children’s educational development.”
I would trust parents over the Teachers’ Unions any day. Also, children of uncaring parents benefit from the interest shown by all the other parents, in that schools are forced to improve for all students.
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$80 for a P4? F*%k, my most powerful machine is only a P4 with half a gig ram; good to know its worth so much. Then again it has a few hard drives of a *couple*
gigs.
Windows? Yuck. Ubuntu is user-friendly enough, requires far less power, and is free.
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Drear Wat,
Where would the threat of competition come from in towns with one school?
I am not promoting teachers’ unions over parents. I am saying parents need to be well informed plus understand what is the best for their children’s educational development. Without this being the case the teachers (not their union) generally make a better decision. So for vouchers to work in the best interest of the child parents need to have high quality information and understand it. A few parents would make the effort but most won’t.
E
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Gerrit says, “I pick them up for next to nothing ($70 to $80 for a P4) and with a 17″ CRT monitor for $20 to $30 you have a cheap but more than adequate computer (usually throw in extra RAM to get more grunt).”
Yes this a start, but the rich kid with the state of the art PC, or Mac, and Broadband will still have an advantage.
The boy I mentioned had a computer that was much better than the science dept. of the school where here he did University Entrance at night. It was given to the science dept. when he went on to university; they were very grateful.
E
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E-prophet,
Certainly there is less vital competition in a small town, but it is never entirely absent (specifically, the risk of a new entrant opening a school). In any event, it doesn’t leave the children any worse off than under the current state monopoly.
The idea that the state should dictate what is taught in schools is reason enough to replace the current system.
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Well wat,
What can I say except repeat “I am saying parents need to be well informed plus understand what is the best for their children’s educational development. Without this being the case the teachers (not their union) generally make a better decision.” This is the main point I am making.
It seems to me, wat, you are ideologically driven and take little account of reality. So theoretically some idealist could open a new school in a place with 50 to 100 school pupils, but how likely is that? You need to provide a better arguments for vouchers than you have so far.
I agree state education is lacking but so is the education provided by many private schools because most parents do not have sufficient knowledge and understanding to make choices in the best interests of the child.
I know how to reduce class sizes with the same number of teachers but when I describe it, most parents and teachers reject it out of hand, even though I have experienced it working in a private school.
I have taught in both public and private schools plus listened to parents reports of their children’s school experiences, so I am basing my views on experience not ideology.
E
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the schoolthe students dont even wear their uniform prpoely
I say closure as the children need real edcation
that is if you care about the children or their education plus so many schools around it no point
spend the money where they actually need it!!!!
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