Talks touted with rebel school

Ministry of Education officials expect to have further talks this week with school and community representatives at Orauta, in central Northland, as the tiny rural school continues to defy a Government closure order.

Trustees of the renamed Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Maara o Hineamaru Ki Orauta say they will not apply to the ministry for registration as a private school as a way to stay open.

The 95-year-old school, 7km west of Moerewa, was ordered to close last year after a ministry review of schools.

It then had 29 pupils, eight pre-schoolers and 2.6 fulltime-equivalent teaching staff. The school will not say now how many children are continuing to attend in defiance of the instruction to close and merge with other nearby schools.

Parents have been told they could face prosecution and fines for failing to enrol their children at a registered school, and school authorities can also be fined up to $200 for each day a school operates illegally.

The ministry's Northland operations manager, Chris Eve, has been barred by the local Maori incorporation from entering the school grounds but he wants to maintain contact with school chairman Ken Brown.

Mr Eve says the ministry has a number of options as it tries to ensure the best outcome for the children still attending the school - he believes they total about 20.

But Mr Brown said he and representatives of the educational trust now formed to run the school under the Maunga Hikurangi Maori Incorporation want to talk only to the Minister of Education and Secretary for Education about the school's future.

He said the school is on Crown land reserved for Maori that was taken under the Public Works Act for a native school after a request by the group's ancestors 95 years ago.