‘Govt will retain real power over schools’

Press, 9 December 1988, Page 5

‘Govt will retain real power over schools’

By

JENNY LONG

The Government will retain the real power over schools under the administrative education changes to be introduced next year, says the principal of Lincoln High School, Mr Rod Browning.

Speaking at the senior prize giving, Mr Browning said schools would have all the responsibility, but no more control over their own destiny. “The only difference next year will be that when things go wrong the Government will say it’s not their problem. “They will say it's up to the locals, the Board of Trustees, and the principal.” The Government would retain the real power; the control over new buildings, over-all funding, over staffing levels, curricula and national exams. Mr Browning said that the present “wasteful bureaucratic procedures” needed to be streamlined. But while original estimates had said that the streamlining would save about S93M, Mr Browning said he doubted if that would be the case. “I suspect that the cen-

tral bureaucracy will be much bigger than originally intended, and no real savings will be made.” There was no real evidence that schools would get more money, or be better off financially, he said. Mr Browning, who is the principal’s representative on the Board of Studies, which was set up to advise the Government on secondary schools, said schools under the new system would still have to spend the same amount of money on buildings maintenance, "because that allocation has been inadequate for years.” “In spite of the fact that there are supposed to have been no cuts in education, we have suffered a moratorium on buildings this year, we have lost enormous spending power on class materials because of a 400 per cent increase in telephone costs, and our evening class programmes

are under threat next year.” Yet other funds in the education vote were not necessarily used in a way which most benefited pupils, Mr Browning said. “I wonder what enormous sums of money ar& being spend on the implementation of the new package of reforms? “I suspect that schools could have employed a lot of extra teachers with that money.” Schools would still have the same unavoidable fixed costs, such as electricity, telephones and heating, Mr Browning said. Schools would also have to spend the same on salaries, and would always want more staffing. “So the only flexibility will be what’s spent on books and classroom materials, which is where the flexibility has always been. “We won’t suddenly

have greater spending power.” Also, the new system would not give principals more power to get rid of inefficient staff, Mr Browning said. "I have seen no new proposals for the declassification of inefficient teachers.” Schools would also see “no great changes” in the courses they offered, as they would be controlled by already existing national guidelines. Mr Browning questioned the rate at which the changes were being made. Other countries had taken two to five years over what New Zealand was to attempt in six months. “I understand the constraints of the three-year Parliamentary term, but I do wonder whether it’s sensible to try to move so fast, and I fear it may exert too much pressure on the system, including pupils.”