Schools told to lift fight for survival

By ALAN PERROTT, education reporter

The communities associated with Northland schools facing closure must continue to fight for their retention despite suggestions of a Government backdown, says one of the schools' board chairman.

Kevin Prime of Motatau School, one of eight Northland schools set to close, has warned people not to get over-excited by last week's five-year moratorium on reviews or the Prime Minister's apparent softening on closures.

"People are encouraged, but it won't necessarily save our schools. I've been busy responding to a lot of emails, telling people not to ease up because none of this has affected our case as yet."

If anything, the Prime Minister's comments distancing herself from the unpopular process should encourage school communities to increase the pressure on Government, Mr Prime said.

Speaking yesterday, Helen Clark expressed "great respect and admiration" for her Education Minister, but said he had bitten off more than he could chew. Cabinet had not anticipated the reviews would reach such a scale that they would cover much of the country.

Mr Mallard last night met with community representatives in Invercargill to discuss a proposal to find an agreement over planned closures.

Invercargill and central Northland are among 11 regions still under review which have banded together to push their case for inclusion in the moratorium. Their organisation, Parents Against Closures, is investigating legal options if their schools are not included in the moratorium.

Mark Farnsworth, spokesman for the Northland joint forum tracking the reviews, said he hoped the Government would realise the harm school closures would cause in their region.

"They need to factor in more than dollars and cents," he said. "Here in Northland we have kids leaving school without any education. Closing schools may exacerbate that."

Graeme Ramsey, the Mayor of Kaipara, which borders the Northland regions being reviewed, said his community may have dodged a bullet.

"A review was not something we were looking forward to and we were certain there was one coming, so we welcomed the moratorium which is clearly a statement that says they haven't got the process right," he said. "It is a victory for people power."

Martin Paulo operates a web log attacking the review process which threatened the future of his children's school, Pinehaven School in Upper Hutt.

He is scathing of a process which he said was designed to pitch communities against each other.

"I think they stopped because it was going to start hurting them really badly and not only in the polls. The process was so bad and had so little to do with educational outcomes that they were going to be embarrassed. They have realised there was a lot of dirt coming their way."

National's education spokesman, Bill English, said the Government was beginning to appreciate the anger the closures had generated and expected the moratorium to be extended to include schools presently under review.

"Trevor Mallard has nowhere to go because the Prime Minister has undercut him and said he doesn't have her support. He can either back down or declare war on provincial New Zealand. I think he will back down."

Change of plan

* About 100 schools earmarked for closure after 12 school network reviews.

* Last month communities in Northland, South Canterbury, West Coast, Invercargill, Upper Hutt, Taranaki and Wairoa were told about 60 of their schools were to close or merge in time for the 2005 school year.