Green MP Nandor Tanczos today said he was concerned about the placement of students following the closure of Auckland's Metropolitan College.

"I understand that up to 25 students will be schooled on the site of Metro College but I am concerned about the staffing levels and the quality of staff available for those students," said Nandor.

"I am particularly worried about where the rest of the former Metro students will go."

Nandor said the evaluations of Metro, which led to the decision to close it, did not look at the educational history of individual students to see whether Metro was better and more suited to them than anything else on offer.

"Individual evaluations have been promised to help placements, but this should have happened before the college was closed, as Metro probably was the best option to meet the students' needs," he said.

"Metro students are not your everyday students. Some of them are 'at risk' students, some of them just don't fit into mainstream schools. All of them have special educational requirements and I don't feel the reviews of Metro College were fair, as they did not compare apples with apples."

"Metro students tend to be people who had been suspended from mainstream schools, or just did not attend. I question whether putting them back in mainstream schools or running programmes through mainstream schools, will help them in any way," said Nandor.

"You just have to listen to the stories of parents and students about how Metro has helped them. Taking Metro away is just asking for trouble."

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

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