Principals warned on funds

Press, 11 July 1989, Page 8

Principals warned on funds

PA Tauranga Secondary school principals were warned last evening against allowing money to be taken out of the system via Government education reform. The warning came from the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association president, Ms Ruth Chapman, in an address to principals at their annual meeting in Tauranga. She said funding would be the most critical issue during the process of reform. “The Picot Report promised no cuts in spending and a reallocation of resources to ‘the learning institutions’ with $14.1 million from department administration to primary and secondary institutions and $86.6 million from departmentally provided services to the same institutions.”

Ms Chapman said this

represented $lOO million from reallocated resources for schools to perform their new tasks. “But, of course, the decisions about how the cake is divided are to be made within the implementation unit.”

She urged principals to be on the alert to ensure money was not carved up among administrators and bureaucrats. If so, schools and their students would miss out. “Every indication is that there will not be extra money put into the system ... “We must be on our guard to ensure that money is not taken out of the system.” She cited the example of the Health Department. “The model of health is there in the newspapers and in the closure and wind-down of local services in every one of our communities. "It has been achieved simply by devolving financial responsibility and then shutting down the supply of funds. “Let’s not kid ourselves that there are not some

people who don’t see that as the desirable outcome of these changes.” Ms Chapman said the signs were not good. She also referred to “the shadowy” Project Able, Assessment for Better Learning. It could provide useful information for the education system but also had the potential to do a great deal of harm, she said. If Project Able was an evaluation of the system and its effectiveness then it was to be welcomed. If it was an evaluation of the effectiveness of schools and teachers then something could be learnt from it. “If it is yet another attempt to rank schools in the ‘Metro’ fashion or just to compare School Certificate marks then it is not just unwelcome but positively harmful,” Ms Chapman said.