Schools face cuts for noncompliance

As many as 10 Otago schools could face funding cuts from the Ministry of Education for refusing to comply with national standards requirements.

Education Minister Anne Tolley has requested schools submit their annual charters with national standards targets.

However, recent Ministry of Education figures show more than a fifth of schools nationwide have failed to submit their charters with the required targets.

Of the 1922 charters from English-medium primary schools analysed, 1503 complied with the requirement.

Otago figures were requested from the ministry on Thursday, but a spokesman on Friday said the information was being treated as an Official Information Act request which could take up to 20 working days to process.

The standards regime has come under fire from teachers, parents and academics concerned at the speed of its implementation and the effects it will have on children who are falling behind.

Mrs Tolley said some schools were having difficulty setting the targets, so the ministry was working with them to rectify the situation.

But some schools had deliberately chosen not to include the targets in protest of national standards, she said.

"They're breaking the law. Opposition to national standards remains strong in Otago.

Balaclava School principal Sally Direen said her school was one of about 10 in Otago which were members of the Boards Taking Action Coalition and which were deferring compliance with national standards target setting.

Several Dunedin schools are also refusing to provide mid-year reports based on the standards.

Macandrew Intermediate principal Whetu Cormick said mid-year reports were sent home with pupils recently, but were not based on national standards.

"We reported against the curriculum rather than national standards. Macandrew continues to report against the broad and rich curriculum we have."

Mrs Tolley said the Dunedin schools' stance was in direct contravention of national administration guidelines which make it clear schools must report to parents in plain language and in writing at least twice a year on their pupils' progress and achievement relative to the national standards.

"Parents and communities deserve accountability and transparency from our schools.

"If parents are not getting the information they need - and are entitled to by law - then they should be taking this up as a matter of urgency with their board of trustees."

New Zealand Educational Institute president Ian Leckie said the number of schools not setting national standards achievement targets in their charters was likely to rise because the ministry still had more charters to process.

The schools which had not complied had now been given deadlines to get their charters in order or face some sort of punitive action, which could include the sacking of boards of trustees, he said.

The scale of the "push-back" against the standards would make that logistically impossible and there was no way the Government could invoke and manage legal action against all of those schools, he said.

- Additional reporting by NZPA

john.lewis@odt.co.nz