Complex donations scheme will see fewer schools take up the grant

Documents released for consultation by the Ministry of Education demonstrate Labour’s donations scheme is hugely complicated and is being rushed through a flawed process. National’s Education spokesperson Nikki Kaye says.

“The Bill is under a truncated Select Committee timeline, and principals and boards were given less than a week to provide feedback on draft guidance for schools around the donations scheme. This is unreasonable given the complexities, definition issues and the impact on schools as to whether they choose to take up this offer.

“The document demonstrates schools will not be able to charge for a range of activities including many school camps and field trips. This will be complicated and difficult to implement. It may also see many more schools choosing not to take up the offer.

“National has previously raised other issues around inequity with the scheme that Labour has proposed, including the exclusion of deciles 8, 9 and 10, which we know have huge numbers of disadvantaged children attending.

“The 20 pages of guidance demonstrates that this will be an incredibly complicated scheme. The fear people have is that it will be difficult to implement and hugely inequitable.”

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