Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland

17 FEBRUARY 2016

Speech by New Zealand First Leader and Northland MP Rt Hon Winston Peters

Hora Hora School opening of new classrooms

Te Mai Road

Whangarei

10.30am, February 17, 2017

Time for an Education Hui and a new education strategy

Thank you for inviting me here today and congratulations on your new classrooms which are the result of many trials, tribulations and much perseverance.

This is a wonderful day in the long history of Hora Hora School which stretches back to 1893.

Looking at your school website it was interesting to read the early school history and what the pupils did at the end of that first year in 1893.

The records show some left the district, some went on to Whangarei School.

Others left to learn trades that today have almost disappeared - blacksmithing; drapery, saddling and printing. Some went on “home duties.”

Those were different days.

But some things never change.

The school’s goal in 1893 was to give the children a positive start in life – to set them on the road to happy and successful lives.

Your school goals today are much the same.

They include having an educational programme in which the children can acquire basic skills in literacy, maths, the sciences, arts and Maori culture; and helping the children to become good citizens, able to lead happy and useful lives.

Value of education

Education must never be under-valued.

Nelson Mandela said education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

G. K. Chesterton, a famous English writer, said education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

It doesn’t matter where your school is – with education you can reach for the sky and achieve your full potential.

We need only look at our history to see some of the famous New Zealanders who came from small schools such as Hora Hora.

The man called “The Father of Physics,” Ernest Rutherford, started his education in a small country primary school at Havelock near Nelson in the South Island.

A famous rocket scientist who pioneered the exploration of outer space and helped get the first man to walk on the moon, Bill Pickering, also went to this humble school in Havelock.

Āpirana Ngata, a great Maori leader and politician, attended a small primary school in Waiomatatini near Gisborne.

He became the first Māori to complete a degree at a New Zealand university. Then he gained an LLB at the University of Auckland becoming the first New Zealander, Māori or European, to gain a double degree.

The question we could ask is – while we recognise the value of education – do we give it the level of importance it deserves?

We may not change the world as Nelson Mandela said, but do we recognise that education can change and improve the circumstances of our own lives and those of our families and communities?

Schools under huge pressure

Since Hora Hora School started, of course, the world has changed immensely.

Education has become far more complex and intense.

Schools are probably under more pressure today than they have ever been.

Last month the New Zealand Educational Institute said a survey they commissioned revealed hundreds of primary school principals and their deputies were burnt out by bureaucracy.

They blamed “government initiatives” as a key cause of this stress.

Vast amounts of administrative work are taking up their time and taking them out of the classrooms.

Last month also hundreds of New Zealand principals said they could not cater for special needs children in their schools because of insufficient support and funding.

Things are no different here at Hora Hora.

You have to battle to get funding to cover costs and what you receive is not enough.

And things are not going to get better.

Core funding for many schools around New Zealand has been frozen this year.

Early childhood funding has been frozen for seven years.

More pressure is going on parents to donate money to keep schools afloat.

As these problems go on the government pushes an agenda to privatise education, to create charter schools which don’t have to have registered or trained teachers.

The underlying purpose of charter schools is to make money for their owners.

Yet these charter schools receive three times the level of funding per student than normal state schools.

If a charter school fails and shuts down – the owners and managers can keep the land and state assets.

This is where our education system is headed under National.

It is a seething mass of problems.

And as schools struggle our society has become more socially divided – with levels of deprivation rising.

Too many schools in our country today have to feed their students.

That is wrong, unfair and a clear sign National’s so –called rock star economy might be rocking for big business and the wealthy people in our country, but not for hundreds of thousands of ordinary New Zealanders.

Time for change

This year New Zealanders will have the chance to say they’ve had enough.

New Zealand First says we’ve already had enough.

We say education must be given the level of importance and support people like Nelson Mandela, Ernest Rutherford and Apirana Ngata recognised but which the National government doesn’t.

We will ensure the education sector is adequately funded to meet the requirements of all our children – including those who face special challenges.

It is counter-productive, and not in the best interests of schools, to have teachers and principals burnt out and leaving the profession when they have so much to offer.

Education Hui

Our education system has now reached such a crisis point New Zealand First believes it is time we have an Education Hui between all those involved – in early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary, trade training, adult and community education.

Out of this Education Hui will come a strategic plan for New Zealand education for the next 30 years to achieve the same goal Hora Hora School has – to set our children on the road to happy and useful lives.

We need order in the chaos.

The Education Hui and New Zealand First will provide it.

Once again, thank you for inviting me here today.

To the children - enjoy your new classrooms!

Congratulations Hora Hora School.

I will now declare the classrooms officially open. (Unveils plaque).

ENDS

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