Charter authorisation board should be sacked

Charter authorisation board should be sacked

A cohort of students is now collateral damage due to the incompetence of the charter school authorisation board, says PPTA president Angela Roberts.

Today’s termination of Whangaruru’s Te Pumanawa o te Wairua charter school agreement was predicted two years ago. As well as the range of concerns pointed out by PPTA, the Ministry of Education had warned the authorisation board of the potential fragility of the school, Roberts said.

Those concerns were rebranded as ‘challenges’ in Education Minister Hekia Parata’s media release today. They included;

heavy reliance on third parties to take it forward
lack of internal capability
the difficulty of attracting suitably qualified teaching staff to Whangaruru; and
concerns over whether a viable student base exists for the kura

“These are not ‘challenges’. They were pointed out a long time ago.”

“The authorisation board went blithely on with the support of both the education minister and ACT leader David Seymour. It was negligent use of power,” Roberts said.

“Either they are incompetent or they are prepared to be reckless with these students’ futures,” she said.

Given the inevitable outcome Roberts believed the authorisation board should be sacked.

“Who is going to be accountable for this arrogance? They deliberately ignored warnings from a number of agencies that Whangaruru was a very risky community to try this sort of stunt. The students are collateral damage and that was always the risk.”

Roberts said it was vital for the affected students to be supported as they returned to the public education system.

“I would hope the intense support that went into backing the charter school will continue for the students it has failed,” she said.

ends

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