Mallard blunt on Patea

By AUDREY YOUNG

Education Minister Trevor Mallard had a blunt response yesterday for Patea people pleading for their town's schools to be left open: he said the schools had been abandoned by the community.

A 200-strong group of pupils, teachers and parents from the problem-plagued South Taranaki town had travelled to Parliament to argue for their schools' survival.

Among their placards was one saying "Hospital closed, freezing works closed, banks closed. Leave what's left."

High School principal Te Aroha Mackintosh said the community had been shocked by the closure announcement last month. It had been expecting a decision to merge the schools.

She feared for the future of the town. "If you take the children out of a town, what have you got? You've got nothing."

After meeting a delegation in the Beehive, Mr Mallard appeared unconvinced.

"I think it would be inappropriate to keep a school open because the community had been battered in the past," he said.

"What we have got to do is look to the future for their children. The essential problem in Patea is that the community has abandoned the schools," he said.

More than half the children who lived in Patea, over 100, now went outside the town for their schooling.

The roll at the secondary school was only 88, and he had serious concerns about the quality of education at the primary school, which numbered 40.

People had worked hard with Patea Primary school to get it to improve, the minister said. They had failed.

The school had had extra resources for the past four years in an attempt to resolve its problems, and four levels of statutory intervention and support.

The closure proposals meant primary pupils would be bused to the rural schools of Whenuakura or Kakaramea or to Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ngati Ruanui in Hawera. The secondary pupils would be bused to either Hawera or Waverley.

Mr Mallard wanted to make a final decision soon "because it is not fair on them to be uncertain for any longer than necessary".