A student at an OMG Tech 'Tech Rangers' event. Photo / Facebook
A trust that helped schools boost kids’ and teachers’ tech literacy - especially in low decile areas - is winding down its day-to-day operations, with its founder Vaughan Fergusson saying “a change in priorities for government” is to blame.
The Pam Fergusson Charitable Trust, trading as OMG Tech, saw Ministry of Education funding halted after the election, Fergusson says.
The trust was caught in a broader shift in the ministry’s Professional Learning Development (PLD) funding toward “structured learning” for schools and kura - in keeping with Education Minister Erica Sanford’s new focus on reading and writing literacy.
“Looking to the announcement of the PLD priorities that have been recently released, for the first time in 34 years, there is no mention of digital technologies, or of digital literacy. The run is over,” education commentator Derek Wenmoth wrote earlier this month.
Speaking to the Herald from Spain, where he and his daughter are walking the Camino Trail, Fergusson offered fresh details on the trust’s collapse - and explained a development that has shaded events: its deregistration from the Charities Register on May 24 this year, for failing to file a 2023 return.
OMG Tech was founded in 2014 by Fergusson with his partner Zoe Trimbrell. “Nanogirl” Michelle Dickinson was involved in the trust’s early days, which saw backing from corporate sponsors including Microsoft, Spark and Xero.
The trust was named for Fergusson’s paraplegic, wheelchair-bound mother, who raised him and his siblings solo. The initials OMG stand for Oh My God, in keeping with Fergusson’s quirky style.
The Aucklander was a minor shareholder and chief technology officer at TravelBug (”We were Airbnb before there was Airbnb) until the start-up was sold to Trade Me in 2007. He went on to found point-of-sale software firm Vend, sold to Canadian firm Lightspeed for around $455m in 2021. Fergusson held an 8 per cent stake at the time of the sale.
OMG Tech initially provided coding and robotics programmes for kids in low-decide South Auckland, before expanding nationwide, including opening a school camp in Raglan in 2019 - which will continue, Fergusson says.
The trust helped schools design and deliver programmes and provided “mentoring, training, equipment, and other appropriate assistance”.
“A change in priorities for government also means we need to stop our digital education – something we obviously don’t agree with, but it is what it is ... So, we’ve made the hard decision to wind up the day-to-day operations of the Pam Fergusson Charitable Trust,” Fergusson posted to LinkedIn.
“We have been in the lives of 100,000 kids all across Aotearoa, from teaching robotics, coding, science and invention to supporting kaiako and teachers to be awesome STEAM [science, technology, engineering, art and maths] educators in their schools.
“Unfortunately ... funding is no longer available and where there are limited funds in the pool it is rightfully going to other new programmes run by authentic voices in our communities.
“It’s been a gut-wrenchingly tough time for the charity for the last couple of years post-pandemic. After 10 years it’s obviously tough on our team and Zoe and I as we close it down,” he added in follow-up comments to the Herald.
“One of our biggest forms of impact of the last few years was moving to teaching teachers how to teach technology and use digital tools. We became a registered provider of Professional Learning Development [PLD] for teachers, accredited by the Ministry of Education,” Fergusson told the Herald.
“We were unique compared to other providers, in that we only focused on technology and digital skills and that we were one of the few that were teaching using hybrid methods.
“Due to the election, new PLD contracts were put on hold and then subsequently the subjects of technology and hybrid and digital learning were deprioritised so no new contracts were available to us. This left us without our biggest form of income for the trust.”
Stanford’s office said it was an operational matter for the Ministry of Education (the non-renewal of a Budget 2023 $15m programme to provide underprivileged students with free home broadband was earlier referred to the ministry as an operational matter, too). There was no response to a question on whether Stanford was happy with the ministry’s interpretation of her policy, which has seen a PLD funding application round that appeared to focus entirely on new priorities to the exclusion of tech literacy.
The ministry said Fergusson’s trust had been a member of its Professional Learning Development Provider Panel since 2018, delivering 48 Statements of Work with a total value of $1,000,324 since 2019. There are three contracts issued to the trust in the 2023/24 financial year for a total value of $30,600.
“To make sure that teachers and leaders have what’s needed to provide the best possible education for their students, we’re continuing to improve the way we support professional learning. That means changes to existing regionally allocated professional learning and development - RAPLD - towards a system of centrally designed, PLD of the same high quality, aligned to the Government’s priorities for education,” Ministry of Education associate deputy secretary, curriculum Pauline Cleaver said.
“As a first step in this change, in 2024 applications for RAPLD were realigned to support the Government’s commitment to increasing literacy rates for all students and upskilling existing kaiako in teaching reading and writing or pānui and tuhituhi through PLD in structured approaches to literacy and te reo matatini [Māori language literacy], as well as supporting the use of assessment and aromatawai, including NCEA.”
“From 2025 these focus areas will continue to be strengthened and additional new PLD will be available to support mathematics teaching and the new curriculum rollout.”
The situation is shaded by the fact the Pam Fergusson Charitable Trust, trading as OMGTech!, was deregistered from the Charities Register on May 24 this year.
“This entity was removed from the Charities Register under section 32(1)(b) of the Charities Act because it failed to file Annual Returns as required by section 41 of the Charities Act,” the Charities Services says.
“We had been working with an extension of time to file last year’s report as it had been such a challenging time trying to turn things around,” Fergusson said.
“Unfortunately, a final deadline came from the Charities Office after we had begun the process of winding up, and they wouldn’t extend it for us so frankly we prioritised our time looking after our people through a tough process while we shut down.
“Despite obviously not requiring the charitable status anymore we still plan on submitting our final charities reports once we are through the windup process.”
The most recent return published on the register, for the year to September 30, 2021, says OMG Tech employed nine full-time staff and 14 part-timers. There were also four volunteers.
Total revenue, including $366,000 from donations and $633,000 for providing services, was $1.12 million. A $13,585 deficit was reported.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
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