26 June 2019

A leaked Cabinet paper detailing the reforms of the apprentice and polytechnic sector shows a staggering 72 new entities will be created, National’s Tertiary Education spokesperson, Dr Shane Reti says.

“The Auditor-General recently said this was the biggest reform of public sector entities in the past 30 years with no evidence of financial sustainability and now we can see why. It is bureaucracy gone mad.

“Many of the new entities, such as the up to seven Workforce Development Councils, are complex structures called not-for-profit statutory entities with annual audits and reporting. The New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology has even more compliance including statements of intent and statements of performance.

“New Zealanders are not prepared to pay for 72 new entities just to satisfy Education Minister Chris Hipkins’ grab for education command and control. Mr Hipkins should be addressing the problems where they are and leaving successful institutions alone.

“The Government says it’s committed to the regions, but it’s destroying local polytech that are integral to their local communities. National will fight these reforms, we will fight for regional New Zealand and we will fight against idealistic educational reforms.”

Notes to editors:

Attached is a table of the new entities created by the reform of polytechs.

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1906/Table_of_new_entities_created_by_the_reform_of_polytechs.pdf

ends

© Scoop Media