NZPF furious with Telecom decision

NZPF furious with Telecom decision

- New Zealand Principals’Federation -

The New Zealand Principals’ Federation is calling on Telecom to reconsider its’ decision to drop the School Connection programme.

For 14 years the School Connection programme has allowed Telecom residential customers to nominate a school to receive points based on their Telecom account spending. Schools can spend the points on computers, printers, cameras, broadband services, professional development courses or phone line charges.

NZPF President Judy Hanna says the decision is extremely disappointing, given the situation that schools face. “Schools are forced to pay business rates for our phone charges. The School Connection programme was originally introduced so that parents could help us to manage our phone charges under those rates. Now Telecom are taking that opportunity away, at a time when our technology and telephony costs are higher than ever.”

Mrs Hanna says if the programme is discontinued, the schools should be allowed to pay residential rates for their phone charges. “Schools are not corporate giants, with profits coming out of our ears. We struggle to fit our costs within our operational budgets, and this is only going to make that challenge harder.”

“Schools will be doubly penalised, because we cannot write our phone costs off against our tax, like businesses can. Why then, should we be forced to pay business rates when we are teaching our children?”

Mrs Hanna acknowledges the $120million contribution that Telecom has made, but says they have done far better out of the programme than schools have. “Compare $120million, divided among thousands of New Zealand schools, to the massive amounts that schools collectively pay Telecom. Think of the taxation they would have had to pay on $120million if it hadn’t been given as a donation. Instead Telecom has 14 years of goodwill, promotion and future customer training. You could argue that they have got off lightly.”

“Even more frustrating is the fact that for 14 years, we have been promoting Telecom and Telecom products to our parents, students and wider school communities. Our schools’ telecommunications spend has increased tenfold during that time. How can Telecom desert us now?”

The NZPF is currently completing a nationwide survey to ascertain just how much schools currently spend with Telecom. “We will publicise those results once we have them,” says Mrs Hanna, “so parents and communities are fully informed. We encourage all Telecom account holders to let the company know exactly how they feel about this programme being removed from our schools.”

ENDS

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