Key points:
- Legislation re-introducing charter schools passed its final reading in Parliament last week.
- ACT leader and Associate Education Minister David Seymour says New Zealand could operate more like England’s “academy” school system.
- New Zealand Education Institute’s Mark Potter says charter schools do not provide the improvements that they promised.
The president of the country’s largest teaching union says David Seymour’s lofty ambitions for charter schools in New Zealand would be an expensive “experiment”, saying there is no evidence to suggest the alternative schooling model can deliver on promised outcomes.
Legislation re-introducing charter schools in New Zealand passed its third and final reading in Parliament last week, with support from National, ACT and New Zealand First — while Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori opposed.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour told Q+A yesterday that New Zealand’s education system could be more like England, where “80% of secondary schools [in England] are free schools and academies — their version of charter schools,” he said.
When asked if a similar figure would be realistic in New Zealand, Seymour said: “Anything the Brits can do we can do.”
The ACT leader and future deputy prime minister speaks to Q+A’s Jack Tame. (Source: 1News)
New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) president Mark Potter told Breakfast there were “no places in the world” where charter schools being introduced had “made any improvements or differences in a positive manner for children”.
“Well, we know for a fact that when they were done here last time, they’re expensive and they didn’t provide the improvements that they promised.”
Academy schools in England are state-funded, but independent from local councils. Academies teach the same core subjects as other schools but can adapt their curriculum.
“The United Kingdom has not actually shown any improvements as achieved for children at all, and nowhere in the world can we see any place where charter type schools have been introduced have they made any improvements or differences in a positive manner for children,” Potter said.
So far, the Government has allocated $153 million over the next four years for the model — enough to create 15 new charter schools and convert a further 35 state schools. Treasury officials initially advised the Government to deter funding until next year’s Budget, citing “highly uncertain” costs.
Potter said the money could instead go toward the employment of more support staff in schools, or additional resources for children who need them: “$153 million could make significant difference to them instead of going into, essentially what is just an experiment that 15 years of Conservative government in the UK has shown has not delivered [on] what it promised.
“Children who need additional support, we know that will make a significant difference to how many hours of available resource that could have right now. Right now, schools are desperate for that kind of resourcing. They need to have more opportunity to help make different programs for children,” he said.
Potter also questioned why the funding had to be used to set up a “totally separate, almost Wild West kind of education system” instead of being put into state schools.
“The studies that we’ve seen, the independent studies show that they either make no difference or they’re doing little bit less… In fact the most common thing they say is that what they deliver is not what they promise.”