Visitors back speedy school reform

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 2

Visitors back speedy school reform

By

JENNY LONG

New Zealand is correct to move quickly to make changes in the way schools are run, say two visiting Australian educationists.

Dr Brian Caldwell and Mr Jim Spinks are in Christchurch to run seminars for principals and others who will be involved in the changes, which on October 1 transfer more control to individual schools. Dr Caldwell and Mr Spinks are the authors of “The Self-Managing School.”

They say that New Zealand is in a good position to allow more decisions to be made at school level, because it has a strong tradition of community involvement in schools.

The legal framework should be put in place quickly, but it would then take another three to five years for modifications and local responses, they said.

In some Australian states, community involvement had been allowed to “wither away,” and it was having to be built up again. Evidence showed that community involvement led to better learning, Dr Caldwell said. Mr Spinks, who is the

principal of a Tasmanian high school, said that changes in Tasmania were being introduced more gradually, frustrating those who wanted more control at local level.

At the New Zealand seminars, people have been enthusiastic about the proposals, Dr Caldwell said.

“Certainly there are concerns, but they are more about how the changes will be managed rather than the changes themselves.” Asked if devolution was being carried too far, in allowing schools to allocate their bulk grant as they saw fit, Dr Caldwell said the proposal was sound because the local community knew the needs of pupils.

"Teachers’ fears that communities would prefer to have equipment, rather than teachers, have proved groundless overseas.” Schools had always wanted the best teachers, he said. The formula under which schools would

receive their bulk grant was crucial. Mr Spinks said that the Canadian system, which was being studied by New Zealand, was a funding model which took account of students’ differing needs. The present New Zealand system allocates funds to schools largely on the basis of numbers, and student ages. The Canadian model looks in detail at students’ needs.

Their formula gave substantial weighting to students who attended multi-lingual programmes, or who were handicapped, for example. The New Zealand proposals give more power to school boards of trustees to set teacher salaries. While these proposals do go further than systems elsewhere in the world, there was no reason why they would not work, provided certain safeguards were built in, Dr Caldwell and Mr Spinks said.

A good training programme had been arranged for principals and boards of trustee members, they said. .