Educational reform ‘in jeopardy’

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 3

Educational reform ‘in jeopardy’

By MARITA VANDENBERG The exciting reforms of ‘Tomorrow’s Schools” are in jeopardy because secondary school principals and boards of trustees are being overwhelmed by the demands of restructuring, said the Opposition’s associate spokeswoman on education, Mrs Jenny Shipley, yesterday.

“Boards of trustees and principals are becoming overwhelmed by the sheer weight of work and the timeframe in which they are being forced to operate,” she said. She said the Education Department required principals to: • Complete an Asset Register Report of the capital value of the school;

• Supply details of the new financial allocation, and ensure that the school had sufficient funds for the next financial year;

• Ensure that new school administation computers were up and running prior to 1990. • Complete a report on the energy use of the

school and identify areas for any possible cost savings; • Identify and rank the socio-economic status of the parents of every child within the school as required for the Elly-Irving special needs grant; • Write up the minutes of board of trustee’s meetings and carry out any actions the board may require. “All of this work has been created in addition to the normal daily requirements of a school principal,” said Mrs Shipley.

She described as “wholly inadequate” a suggestion by the Undersecretary for Education,

Mr Noel Scott, that principals use teacher-only days to meet boards of trustees and to develop charters.

“The lack of support and resources for principals and boards of trustees will cause the excitement and high expectations associated with the reform to die away.” Mrs Shipley’s comments highlighted the problems principals were experiencing, said the local representative of the Principals Advisory Committee, Mr Bill Swan.’ Mr Swan, the principal of Linwood High School, said many schools had already used up their teacher-only days.

He said there was a lot of pressure on principals to meet deadlines for many of the required tasks and that this was ultimately diverting staff away from helping students. A survey of principals at the recent principal’s conference in Tauranga revealed that 89 per cent of principals did not believe they had received adequate training so far; 80 per cent did not believe the boards of trustees would be adequately trained by October 1; and 75 per cent wanted national needs identified and a national training course provided.