Education Minister Chris Hipkins told Q+A tonight that New Zealand schools are not failing – despite commissioning a review of the Tomorrow’s Schools reforms.

“To be absolutely clear, these are comprehensive reforms that we are looking at, we want to deal with some long term systemic issues that the system has but I don’t approach it from the basis that - particularly in our schooling - I don’t approach it from the basis that the system is broken”

One of the key recommendations is to introduce Education hubs to take over some of the powers of schools and Boards of Trustees.

He agreed with the idea of an additional level of support for schools: “…Whether they’ve got the design of the hubs right, well that’s what this consultation is all about.”

Did he think the Education hubs would lead to more bureaucracy? “No you’ve actually got to look at it the other way, you’ve got the Ministry of Education here and we’ve got schools over here, on a regional basis should there be something in the middle to actually move some of that Ministry support for example closer to the schools and closer to the students and closer to the teachers. The hubs could well be part of the answer to that. But I’m not saying we’re buying into that model, that’s what this consultation is about, we want to hear what people have to say.”

On principals having 5 year terms: “It’s certainly not something I would buy into, I think the taskforce itself have ruled that out”

On zoning, and whether parents should have a choice of schools: “Parents do have that choice now and I wouldn’t be suggesting that that choice is taken away. I don’t think we’ll ever go back to the hard zoning we would have had prior to 1989 where you basically had one choice of school and that was that.

He also said the Government would stick to a commitment to give schools extra funding so they don’t have to rely on extra donations

“At the moment there’s no question in many cases schools have to ask for donations because the funding isn’t sufficient. The Government’s made some commitments about how we will address those – those are subject to budget discussions of course”

“We might not come through with that all in one go but we have made an absolute commitment that we want to ensure schools are properly funded and not reliant on donations from parents.”

Chris Hipkins also maintains there is no more money for teachers on the table. He says the threat of strike action by primary teachers and principals is disappointing, and a bit frustrating but says he will keep working with teachers.

“I know they want progress faster but the government as a whole is dealing with a range of issues across the board education is only one of them.”

Jess: So is there more money for them?
Chris Hipkins: “Not in this pay round and we have been very clear about that.”

Please find links to part 1 and part 2 of the full interview.

Q+A, 9:30pm Mondays on TVNZ 1 and one hour later on TVNZ 1 + 1.
Streamed live at www.tvnz.co.nz
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