Management training for heads promised

Press, 16 July 1987, Page 6

Management training for heads promised

PA Auckland National’s spokeswoman on education, Miss Ruth Richardson, has told secondary school principals they could expect more management training if National wins the General Election. Too many decisions about schools were being made by bureaucrats, she said. Miss Richardson, speaking at the secondary principals’ conference in Auckland, said schools were the “biggest business” in most towns.

"They employ the most professionals and have the most clients, so we must get some proper management ethic into it (the school system).” She said principals should be allowed to make decisions about their schools. “National intends that there should be proper management training for this.” Management reform would be linked with changes to give parents more choice of the type of education they wanted

for their children. Miss Richardson said parents would not have their full democratic rights until zoning was lifted and they were allowed to "vote with their feet.” Some delegates questioned her about the effects of pupils’ movements to more popular schools. “If there was a mass movement it could just be a desire on the part of parents to desert schools that were not performing,” she said.