College in gun as roll tumbles

Northland College has received a damning report for the Education Review Office. Photo / File photo

The Ministry of Education is considering an intervention at another Northland school following a report detailing unsafe buildings, poor financial management and ineffective governance.

Northland College, in Kaikohe, has received a damning report from the Education Review Office, which says longstanding property and financial issues at the school are compromising students' education.

There are 11 Northland schools that have Ministry of Education interventions of varying types, a situation experienced educationist and former principal Frank Leadley says shows that Tomorrow's Schools - which introduced boards of trustees to schools in the late 1980s - was flawed.

The Northland College report says governance at the college is ineffective and the board of trustees is "no longer able to provide a safe physical and emotional environment for its employees and students".

Noting that the board of trustees is failing to meet its legal requirements on several fronts, the report recommends the Secretary of Education considers urgent intervention.

The ministry is expected to make a decision on whether to intervene in the fortnight.

If the ministry decides intervention is necessary, Northland College would become the fourth Northland school to be placed under ministry control.

Moerewa School's board was sacked and a commissioner installed last month following the school's refusal to discontinue classes for senior students; A statutory manager was brought into Kamo High last year in response to falling achievement rates, poor attendance and a rise in suspensions; Whangaroa College also has a statutory manager.

Although there are some positive features in the report - a successful bilingual unit, strong community links, and areas of NCEA success, these are "undermined" by substandard buildings and inadequate teaching and learning resources, the report says.

Northland College used to be the main centre of secondary education in the Far North and at one time had a roll of 1000 students. In 2006 it had 436 students, but the roll has fallen to its present level of 287 students, and the resulting drop in funding has seen college buildings fall into disrepair.

The old hostel has been demolished, technology rooms removed and a whole classroom block - including staffroom - closed for renovation since April last year. "Students and teachers have been limited to one classroom block, a poorly equipped science laboratory and an overcrowded, unventilated staff workroom," ERO says.

Mr Leadley, who was principal of Bay of Islands College when Tomorrow's Schools was introduced, said it was a great concept to get local communities more involved in running schools.

"But in practice there aren't the people in many of the school communities that can take up the challenge of running what is in effect a multimillion-dollar operation. If you had a multimillion-dollar business you wouldn't put somebody in charge that didn't have the experience, knowledge or skill, but that's what has happened with Tomorrow's Schools," he said.

"I think schools are so bogged down in all the bureaucracy from Tomorrow's Schools, the whole assessments and processes involved, that it's hampering them."

School principal John Tapene and board chairman Don Edmonds were meeting to discuss the ERO report last night.