Anne Tolley MP
National Party Education Spokeswoman
4 July 2008
Crumbling classrooms? Go public
Education Minister Chris Carter has now made three embarrassing back downs in three days over his Ministry’s inaction on
crumbling schools, says National’s Education spokeswoman, Anne Tolley.
“If this isn’t enough to signal the system is not working, nothing will be.
“It should not take politicisation, followed by media interest, to get any action.
“Chris Carter admitted in Parliament yesterday that it was only after a visit to Napier Intermediate’s crumbling
facilities that he realised how bad their problem was.
“This is just days after Hawke’s Bay’s Tiaho primary school went public, frustrated over three years of futile
form-filling – and unsurprisingly, received an offer of help from the Ministry of Education immediately after they did.
“And then there was another school, this time in Papamoa, which only had its leaky classrooms addressed after TV became
involved.
“Why do schools need to spend years enduring a paper battle with Labour over conditions that are intolerable for
children?
“Why do they need to go to the media in order to get action?
“The system is clearly not working when the Ministry only acts when it is publicly embarrassed into doing so.
“Labour’s bureaucratic empire is gorging itself while children shiver in rotting classrooms.”
ENDS