Some Catholic schools oppose changes to the education system

Thursday, April 4th, 2019

11 Catholic schools have joined the Community Schools Alliance, a campaign launched to oppose changes to the ways schools in New Zealand are governed, managed and administered.

The Community Schools Alliance is made up of 43 of the country’s 2431 state and integrated schools.

And the former CEO of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office Brother Sir Patrick Lynch has also suggested that “significant changes” need to be made to the proposal.

A report prepared by a task force led by former principal Bali Haque proposes the establishment of about 20 regional “hubs”.

All the legal responsibilities and liabilities currently held by school boards of trustees would be transferred to these hubs.

Massey High School principal Glen Denham, a spokesman for the Community Schools Alliance said he worked under such a system in London and it did not work.

“We are a world-class education system. It’s not broken,” he said.

“What makes us great is that we are a tapestry of different kinds of schools, that you can go 10km down the road and find a completely different kind of school.”

Lynch says there has been a need for a review of what is now referred to as the Tomorrow’s Schools model.

“However, the recent task force document succeeds in throwing out the baby and the bathwater, given the proposals it has made.”

He says not many people would agree that no changes should be made, “yet the task force seems to have forgotten or overlooked some fundamental aspects of today’s New Zealand society.”

The Catholic schools that have joined The Community Schools Alliance are: Baradene College (Remuera), Chanel College (Masterton), De La Salle College (Māngere), John Paul College (Rotorua), Liston College (Henderson), Marist College (Mt Albert), Sacred Heart College (Glendowie), St Dominic’s Primary School (Blockhouse Bay), St John’s College (Hastings), St Paul’s College (Ponsonby), and St Peter’s College (Epsom).

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