Thursday, 21 February 2013 07:21
"Charter Schools could undermine the reputation of our teachers as highly qualified professionals and create barriers for movement of teachers within New Zealand" said Malcolm Walker, President of the Independent Schools Education Association (ISEA).
ISEA is presenting its submission to the Select Committee at 10.30 today (Fri 22 Feb) in Auckland.
Proposed changes to the Education Act could allow charter schools to hire non-registered, unqualified teachers and ISEA says this is unacceptable.
All schools in New Zealand currently require teachers to be registered and subject to the rules of the Teachers Council. These teachers can move freely between the state and independent sector. The checks and balances of this system (including the mandatory reporting regime) are valued and expected by parents.
ISEA is also concerned that the charter schools will be unaccountable to the public.
"The rationale for the introduction of charter schools is bewildering. This unfortunate experiment singles out Christchurch and South Auckland as regions for the introduction of Charter Schools. It ignores the existing character schools in Christchurch that already fill many of the roles proposed for charter schools but with full accountability.
We already have a wide number of independent schools available in New Zealand, faith based schools, neighbourhood schools and so forth, so we fail to see why the introduction of Charter Schools is necessary" continued Mr Walker.
"Whilst many independent schools in Christchurch were impacted by the earthquake they are up and running today and I am confident of the future of independent schools and what they offer.
"We do not need to undermine our teachers and threaten our state and independent schooling system by emulating a failed model from a different culture with a different history of schooling children. The Bill is an embarrassing attack on schools, on the New Zealand education system with its agreed educational standards and on teachers for purely ideological reasons." concluded Mr Walker.
The text of the ISEA submission is here:
ENDS