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Taxpayers may fund cult schools under school experiment
Taxpayers may fund cult schools under Government’s
charter school experiment
The
Government’s Charter School experiment may allow the
Destiny Church to set up a school that can flout the New
Zealand curriculum and ignore quality teaching
practices.
NZEI Te Riu Roa says it would be
extremely concerned about possible teaching standards at any
proposed Destiny Church-run charter school.
NZEI
President Ian Leckie said that the Government’s charter
school experiment would allow extremist religious
organisations to set their own education
agenda.
Legislation due to be considered by
Parliament in September is likely to allow charter schools
to employ unqualified and unregistered teachers, and not to
follow the New Zealand curriculum.
"For instance,
we know that the Destiny Church is not socially tolerant and
that it preaches homophobic views and believes that children
should be physically punished. Is this the kind of
organisation that should be getting taxpayer funding to run
its own education agenda?"
Charter schools are a
result of the Act/National party coalition agreement and are
based on Act’s education policies of private profit-driven
organisations using taxpayer funding to compete with local
schools.
Charter schools are an extremely dangerous
experiment and are not needed, Mr Leckie says.
The
Education Act already allows a huge variety of special
character and private schools operating in New Zealand such
as total immersion and Kura Kaupapa Maori. However these
schools operate within the system and must comply with the
New Zealand curriculum or the Maori Medium Curriculum to
ensure education quality.
Charter schools would not
have the normal checks and balances to ensure that all
children are getting a quality
education.
ENDS
NZEI Te Riu Roa
New Zealand Educational Institute
NZEI Te Riu Roa members work in every community in New Zealand, leading and advocating for quality public education.
We are the 50,000 principals, teachers and support staff who work in primary, area and secondary schools as well as early childhood centres, special education and school advisory services. We come together as NZEI Te Riu Roa - New Zealand's largest education union, a Treaty based organisation and a powerful advocate for quality public education.
We have the most important job in New Zealand - educating for the future.
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