by Catherine Delahunty
Yesterday I went with other MPs to ask the Minister of Education not to close a school. She couldn’t comment as the legal review process constrains her but I do hope she was listening.
On World Teachers’ Day I want to celebrate the teachers at Aorangi School in Christchurch because they are fighting for the wellbeing of some very important children. All children are important but not all of them were born into refugee families struggling for a safe place to live and to give their children real chance of a good life.
Not all children are the descendants of tangata whenua who had Te Reo stolen from them and are finally getting the chance to get educated in their own tongue. The teachers at Aorangi School are working with these children in the bilingual unit and with the children of refugees and migrants and they have right to be proud of their ERO report and the endorsement of leading educationalist Dr Lester Flockton from the Otago Assessment Centre.
These teachers are pretty busy helping the children of Aorangi School develop their literacy and numeracy but also their tolerance and respect for different cultures and traditions. That is why “inclusiveness” is often used to describe the unique features of Aorangi.
However in addition to this vital educational work the teachers and parents are now fighting for the survival of this school even though the Minster is clear that it has no educational issues. The closure is on the table because it would cost a lot to remodel the old buildings on this site and the Government is in cost-cutting mode.
Aorangi was John Key’s school. It needs some refurbishment but the teachers are doing a great job. If the school is closed and the children farmed out to higher decile schools which may or may not have room, the support services these children need will not go with them. The bilingual unit developed through a good relationship with Ngai Tahu and the proposed bilingual early childhood unit “Nuku Te Ao” will not be developed. These projects and resources are not transportable and the children will lose something vital and precious.
Usually schools are closed after a network review or after problems with violence and loss of community support. None of these issues apply to Aorangi. So why is this happening? On World Teachers’ Day I challenge the Government to stand beside these teachers and find another option because they are doing a great job for the people who matter most, our children.
In my maiden speech I called for political decision-making to be based on the needs of children. Here is an opportunity. Congratulations on World Teachers’ Day to all teachers who work as hard as the Aorangi staff!
Published in Environment & Resource Management by Catherine Delahunty on Fri, October 30th, 2009
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on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
How much money would keep the school open? What are we talking about here?
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“Not all children are the descendants of tangata whenua who had Te Reo stolen from them and are finally getting the chance to get educated in their own tongue.”
that’s an interesting sentence.
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While the Ministry, and hence the Minister, continue to claim that closing the school will save a significant amount of money an independent analysis of the data found a number of issues with the Ministries use of the figures.
Using the MoE figures the cost of finishing the rebuild of the school would be a little under $2.3M. (Sounds a lot, but has to be looked at in context – the MoE spends about $2M every 12 hours, this is a resource with a life expectancy well in excess of 50 years) MoE estimates for closing the school have dropped from more than $2.8M in Feb to $0.776M in Oct by removing various one-off costs without explanation. The independent analysis states that “costs of the two options appear not dissimilar once items we believe may have been omitted from the MoE analysis are included.”
The reports other criticism of the MoE analysis was the lack of any cost vs benefit analysis. Without this the true costs of closing Aorangi will probably not be known for years and will extend far beyond the cost of the rebuild.
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