Longstone chucked overboard
The education sector knows that the ideological agenda the government has set for education is bigger than one person
and that Lesley Longstone's resignation won't unfortunately change the government's direction. However, Associate
Professor Peter O'Connor says that someone had to be thrown overboard to try and save the sinking ship. Lesley
Longstone's resignation is an admission that the government seriously underestimated the strength of the opposition to
the agenda she was brought into New Zealand to lead. Coupled with an agenda that is increasingly unpopular the Ministry
has been mired in basic incompetence. Its class room sizes debacle, the charter schools fiasco, the Christchurch school
cluster bombing, the Novopay issues and the Salisbury school closure speak of a Ministry that has failed basic levels of
competency. Simply put this is the worst performance by a Minister of Education and Ministry in living memory and
someone either had to fall overboard or be chucked.
ENDS