Ombudsman to look at school closures

Hekia Parata
Hekia Parata
The Ombudsman's office will investigate the way the Education Ministry conducted consultation on school closures and mergers.

Chief Ombudsman Dame Beverley Wakem said the investigation came out of an Ombudsman's inquiry last year into how the ministry handled information requests about proposed closures and mergers in Christchurch, during which a number of parties voiced dissatisfaction about the consultation process as a whole.

"The Education Act requires the Education Minister consult prior to closing or merging schools and the ministry plays a key part in assisting the minister with those consultations.

"The investigation will focus on the actions of the ministry only and not the minister herself as the actions of the minister are not subject to oversight under the Ombudsmen Act."

Dame Beverley will be looking in some detail at a number of closure and merger consultations carried out in recent years, including the process underway in Christchurch.

"I will assess whether the consultation processes operate in a manner that adequately ensures fair and meaningful participation by affected parties and, if they do not, how they could be improved."

Dame Beverley is asking anyone who has information relevant to the investigation to contact her office.

She said it was expected that the investigation would be completed in the second half of this year

Labour's education spokesman Chris Hipkins described the process as a "train wreck".

"It's a real slap in the face for (Education Minister) Hekia Parata."

He said the minister was ultimately responsible.

"One of the problems we have with Hekia Parata is she never accepts responsibility for anything, whenever anything goes wrong she ducks for cover and blames her officials," said Mr Hipkins.

Green's co-leader Metiria Turei said she was concerned the scope of the investigation would not include the ability to investigate the minister's role.

Ms Parata's office was unaware of the investigation but said it was an operational matter and she would not comment.

But Ms Parata later admitted there was room for improvement.

She had faith in the ministry, saying they had worked hard to get school closures and mergers right.

"We have resourced this process exceptionally well, we have doubled the length of time available we've made all information available as soon as we've been able to, we've responded to all requests for meetings,

"I have visited every school twice, we've provided an 0800 line, we've provided a website - I think we have done a pretty good job, but we can always do better."

Ms Parata said the ministry had gone about the consultation appropriately.

"School closures are a very emotional issue and people will have concerns they want to report, I am keen to ensure we improve our processes.

Ms Parata said she had not been contacted by Dame Beverley, and had no intention of contacting her.

 

 

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