Small schools braced as Mallard sharpens axe

By AUDREY YOUNG and CLAIRE TREVETT

Parents, teachers and pupils at 18 Northland schools are bracing themselves for bad news tonight when Education Minister Trevor Mallard announces where the axe will next fall in his review of schools.

The minister will reveal at a meeting in Kawakawa whether six schools on the Russell peninsula and 12 in central Northland will survive, close or merge.

Mr Mallard would give no hint last night of his decision in what will be the 11th and 12th reviews in the past year but said he appreciated the emotions bound up in it.

"I was incredibly upset myself at closing my own primary school," he said, referring to Wainuiomata school closures which began the reviews three years ago.

He said the vast majority of parents accepted there had to be change - so long as it wasn't at their school.

In Northland there were quite a few schools close together. "It was a network designed when people either walked or rode horses to school."

Primary school rolls are projected to drop by 60,000 over the next 15 years. So far, more than 90 schools have been identified for closure around the country.

The money saved on closed schools will go to the bigger ones.

Education officials have measured the surplus capacity in the Northland area under review at 347 student places and 14 surplus classrooms.

National's new education spokesman, former leader Bill English, claims the Government is wasting an opportunity with projected falling rolls to shrink class sizes "and to have better relationships between families, teachers and students which research shows is really important for achievement, particularly disadvantaged kids".

"Instead, Mallard is sweeping aside all those opportunities and is herding kids into primary schools of 400 and 500 all over the country, ripping the heart out of communities that have had successful schools that are strongly supported."

Mr Mallard said that what he was doing would, in the longer term, fund reduction of class sizes, transferring the money being spent on buildings, grounds and maintenance to teachers and teacher aides.

He also denied that community consultation was a sham.

"I've read thousands of submissions and driven thousands of kilometres to look at schools, sites and to listen to the argument."

In some cases there had been significant changes from earlier proposals.

But the intensity of the process appears to have taken its toll on Mr Mallard and education officials to the extent that he said he did not want to undertake the same number of reviews in the next batch - due to be announced around June or July.

"It stretched officials - and me."

The Northland schools were given five months' notice of the review.

Some schools are still hoping to stay open. Karetu School board chairwoman Sam Davis believed that its roll would go up, rather than down as subdivisions were going in quickly.

"We've got our fingers crossed and hopefully the minister is listening," she said last night.

However, others have accepted their fate. Towai School principal Brent Davies said that with a roll of 19, his school's closure was inevitable.

Just 10km away, there is more tension over what happens to Maromaku School, which looks set to merge with at least one other school.

Maromaku School principal Debbie Lynch said the community strongly supported a merger with Towai - as long as the merged schools were based at Maromaku.

"We know they can't stay the same, but the school brings the church and those who don't go to church together.

"So I don't think the community will just sit down and take it."

However, not everyone is living in dread of the decisions.

Pita Tipene, project manager for Te Reo o Te Taitokerau, and Ngati Hine kaumatua Kevin Prime both held hopes that tonight would bring news of a merger of Orauta, Matawaia and Motatau into a new Ngati Hine school at Waiomio.

Mr Tipene said a merger would make the schools, all with strong Maori-language components, stronger.

Mr Prime, the chairman of the Motatau School board, said historic reasons for setting up several schools in one area were not valid any more.

"We are not the same as we were 100 or 150 years ago when there was no good transport or roads and it made sense having a school here and there.

"Now our kids are so big and lazy. They go 200m down to the corner to catch the bus and say they can't walk or run because they'll get all sweaty.

"We used to get up at 4am and milk the cows and we had three miles to run to catch the bus. In my dad's time, they didn't even have a bus, they used to walk to school."

Under review

Schools in danger of being closed by the ministry.

CENTRAL NORTHLAND

Te Kura O Awarua - 19 pupils

Hukerenui School - 128

Kawakawa School - 294

Maromaku School - 46

Te Kura o Matawaia - 15

Moerewa School - 131

Motatau School - 32

Orauta School - 30

Otiria School - 106

Tautoro - 49

Towai - 19

Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Taumarere - 49

RUSSELL PENINSULA

Russell School - 117

Waikare School - 37

Karetu School - 55

Helena Bay School - 30

Punaruku School - 30

Ngaiotonga Valley School - 23