Government may act over enrolment cheats

The Government is prepared to step in to solve schools' enrolment problems as some principals fear disrupted classes and timetables because of late admissions.

Schools have complained that increasing numbers of parents are moving into zones at the last minute, trying to enrol their children.

Education Minister Steve Maharey told the Herald yesterday that the Government would look at a cut-off date if enough schools complained.

"If that is something that the schools brought to us that's something we would look at."

Auckland Grammar has said it will not take any new enrolments until term two after 80 students applied in the past week, disrupting timetables.

The Government requires schools such as Auckland Grammar to accept students from its local zone rather than select applicants from anywhere.

Avondale College principal Brent Lewis said the school had between 100 and 150 last-minute applicants trying to get in for the first day of school today, leaving it having to look at hiring more teachers.

Mr Maharey said schools would be helped to deal with the tactics some parents used.

These included renting a house in a zone then moving out, using a business address in the school's zone as a postal address to get their children in, moving their children to friends or extended family or renting rooms in the school's area.

Auckland Grammar has employed a full-time enrolments officer to demand evidence of residency and go to the homes in question to check.

Mt Albert Grammar associate principal Dale Burden said late enrolments were also a problem there.

Up to 40 students would miss out on their first choice of subjects because class sizes had grown too big to accommodate them, he said.

Year 9 was not a problem because schools could estimate based on the numbers of students leaving intermediate but last-minute enrolments in Years 11 to 13 had caused problems, with parents moving their children to different schools for perceived differences in education.

"If you've got real estate in Mt Albert it's a great time to rent it," Mr Burden said.

"It's been much worse than previous years."

The tactics are a problem nationwide. Christchurch Boys High School has had up to 50 families move into its zone since August to get a student placement this year.

There was only room for about 20 of 270 applicants from out of zone.

Principal Trevor McIntyre said families of in-zone enrolments had to produce a copy of property title or rental agreement and copies of two utility accounts, such as power or telephone, with a parent's name listed at the stated address.

"Then if there's anything that we feel is a bit dodgy, I will go and check. There was an example last year where there was a flat above a shop, the shop was in-zone, but the flat upstairs certainly wasn't being used as a residence for the family, so I turned the application down," Mr McIntyre said.

A couple of suspicious cases had been identified from this year's enrolments and some families would receive random visits to ensure they were still living at the address stated.

Mr McIntyre said it was frustrating turning away students who desperately wanted to get into the school.

"Increasingly, New Zealand parents are looking around for a style of education that they want and they are doing some quite extraordinary things to access the type of school they believe is best for their student."

Staff at Cashmere High School are also closely inspecting all in-zone applications after receiving between 70 and 80 more than expected.

"Last Wednesday or Thursday we did have a crook one. This [in-zone property] turned out to be a business premises," said principal David Turnbull.

"I don't know how many there are that are suspect because there is a grey area in the middle where the student might be living with a grandparent in the zone.

"It is unfortunate that people try to beat the system, but it is there."

Research by the Maxim Institute shows that most parents want to choose schools but choice is largely determined by income. A survey of 1001 parents nationwide showed 96 per cent wanted the choice and 80 per cent said education should be funded so that parents could afford to choose.

Despite the enrolment complaints, Mr Maharey said schools were in good shape. There were only 351 teacher vacancies nationwide and most should have been filled by today.

"This is probably the best year in a long time that we can say that every class will have a teacher in front of it - that is not something we have had in the past so that is great."

- Additional reporting Jarrod Booker