by Catherine Delahunty
On Tuesday night the news came through that Aorangi Primary School will definitely be closed, against the wishes of the school and its local community.
Yesterday at the Education and Science Select Committee, I asked what would happen to the children in the school’s total immersion Te Reo unit. The Secretary of Education, Karen Sewell, assured me that by the beginning of next year there will be an immersion Te Reo unit available to help these kids continue their learning. I am not sure how this is supposed to happen, given that it takes years to build Te Reo units with properly established relationships with manawhenua and within schools.
Ms Sewell says they will be working with Ngai Tahu and I am sure they will as Ngai Tahu were working with Aorangi and will not abandon these whänau. However, I will be very interested to see if this new unit eventuates on time to meet the needs of the tamariki. At the moment, there are no other schools in North Christchurch with the history to magically create a Te Reo unit for them.
There are also huge issues when you close a school where many of the pupils come from refugee and migrant backgrounds, and send them off to higher decile schools. The support doesn’t necessarily follow the children as they are scattered around a number of institutions. And other local schools are complaining that is all too sudden to be dealt with sensibly at the end of the year.
The Green Party goes further. We say that Aorangi School was a great little school that just wanted new buildings. Now they get nothing and the land goes back to the Crown. I wonder who is benefiting from this decision because it sure as hell isn’t the children!
Published in Parliament | Society & Culture by Catherine Delahunty on Thu, November 26th, 2009
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They can become Prime Minister evidently – he went there didn’t he?……save your old school John, gwan….make you look good
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But your govt are spending – on worthless white elephant projects like roads.
Haven’t heard you calling these out ?
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why does a perfectly solid looking school with 87 children on hte roll need $2 million spent on it?
(and why isnt anyone asking this question?)
something is very wrong here if there is not a buget option available for upgrading. can it not be stretched out for a year or three by doing a bit of essential maintence? why on earth is it $2 million or nothing?????
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Weedeater – on the outside it looks quite solid, but internally, 50 yrs ago it was built without building paper, and so the internal framing holdng the place up is rotten – so soft you can squish a finger in it – and there is mould all through the internal fabric.
I have to say I get sick of hearing ‘oh,its a small school, so we don’t need it’. Lets get something clear – its actually the average size for NZ – most schools outside of the larger cities are around 80 to 100 students or smaller.
As for ‘we need roads’. Sure, but we need children who are well educated more – because Bluepeter – Aorangi has some of the most vulnerable children in chch (refugee, low income, maori and many other cultures). Academics at the chch uni have hailed the school as an innovative example of best practice that all schools could learn from. SO, this is not a failing school or a school that is not needed in the network. To move forward as a country – so we can afford to make roads – we need tax earners, not tax takers (kids who have been failed and are in jail costing us heaps)
There are not enough spaces in surrounding schools – and the stats show that this school is needed.
The roll has not fallen – but remained static. It is simply an excuse to use this statement – if she was going to close schools with falling rolls in chch then she would be better off on the other side of town where there are a large number of schools whose rolls have fallen – some quite a lot. But I guess in Woolston etc the lands just not as valuable as in Fendalton! (and I bet the local mp, a nat, would just love to get rid of the ‘undesirables’ in his flash electorate – what next – kill off the state housing hidden between the flash parts and hes got a win win)
And, finally, 2 mill is a tiny drop in the bucket of education spending – the school actually saves the country money because the specialist programmes they implement keep kids in school, and turn them around so that they don’t fail and end up costing the country many many millions later. Great message she (Tolley) is sending this community – not white and rich enough for us to care.
(Oh – and for the record – to give the schools less than 2 weeks to try and find places for these very difficult kids is not only failing them, but the local schools and the other kids that go to them – because some of these kids are hard work – and without time and support it will have an impact on everyone – so if your kids go to one of the other schools these kids are being dumped into – start to worry and do something about it – there is a reason Aorangi is good at what it does!)
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