NZ needs education ombudsman, says Judge

An education ombudsman should be set up to look at how the system serves children, says High Court Judge David Baragwanath.

But Education Minister Trevor Mallard has rejected the call, saying existing advocacy systems are better than setting up a new body.

Justice Baragwanath told the Education Law Association Conference in Wellington that New Zealand did not have an efficient remedy for educational malfunction as it affected individual children.

That was remarkable in the age of the Consumer Guarantees Act for goods and services, he said. Accountability for consumers was a general requirement.

The Education Act and the Education Standards Act made individual teachers subject to complaints of misconduct and incompetence.

"But neither of these provisions deals directly with systemic failure to ensure that at least a minimally competent standard of education is provided to particular children," said Justice Baragwanath.

Agencies such as the Teachers Council, the Education Review Office, the Human Rights Commission and the Commissioner for Children were also not equipped to deal with individual complaints.

There was no agency able to focus on individual cases of failure to deliver what the education system had a duty to provide.

The Ombudsman was established to make Government systems accountable to citizens, and there was now also a banking ombudsman.

"If the importance of education is accepted, why not establish an education ombudsman?"

It would be a place where a parent could go and say their child was in strife.

"There could be all sorts of reasons for this. There could be parental problems, there might be something wrong with the child or there may be nothing wrong at all, as was found with most of the Ombudsman's complaints."

Mr Mallard said when he became minister he appointed two extra staff in the Commissioner for Children's office to serve as advocates for young people in the education system.

"I think that's better than setting up a whole new legal body.

"At present, schools must deal with complaints from individual children ... If parents feel a school has not followed the correct processes, they can contact the Ministry of Education."

If they were not satisfied they could then go to the Commissioner for Children and the Ombudsman.

- NZPA