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National plans to give schools back the power to create their own zoning areas after the government eliminated it with a new system to replace the 30-year autonomous regime, in a bid to achieve more equitable outcomes for all students.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the system allows schools to “manipulate the zone based on the areas they want to take students from; for example, including high-socioeconomic neighborhoods and excluding neighborhoods closer to home. , but more disadvantaged “.
National leader Judith Collins wants to reverse the government’s move by creating new schools with an additional $ 2.8 billion, part of the $ 4.8 billion committed over the next decade for educational infrastructure.
National predicts that about 60 new schools will be needed by 2030 based on recent projections of 100,000 additional students within a decade. Half of them must be built in Auckland, and the other half must be built in high-growth areas or areas that are currently at or above capacity.
Collins has already announced that he wants to establish 25 new partner schools by 2023, including some focused on specific students like Māori and Pacifica, specialized areas such as education for children with additional learning needs or particular subject areas.
The government scrapped the partner schools model seven years after its introduction by the National Party, out of concerns that it created inequality and deviated from the need to lift the entire public education system.
ACT leader David Seymour, the architect behind the previous national government’s partnership school program, described the move to end the model as “a massacre of opportunity for children.”
Seymour said Monday: “We are delighted that National is committed to taking back ACT charter schools. It is challenging to come up with policies for two political parties, but it is a burden ACT can bear.”
National wants to identify which schools are having the most positive impact on student achievement by commissioning education officials to see how this can be replicated in other schools.
“National will increase spending on education each year, including increasing operating funds for schools and early childhood education services,” Collins promised Monday, if National is elected to office in October.
“We want all children to achieve great things. With the right education, we can overcome the challenges that some children face simply because of the situation in which they were born.”
National is also committed to reducing class sizes by reducing the pupil-to-teacher ratio in elementary schools and eliminating the annual enrollment fee that teachers are currently required to pay to the Teaching Council.
The Government announced last week that Auckland students will be able to earn more credits and pass with a lower threshold due to the resurgence of COVID-19, which saw the city under the Alert Level 3 lockdown.
The government eliminated the $ 76.70 NCEA fee that families pay each year as part of their 2019 Wellness Budget, which was endorsed by National.
