It has been a tough few days in the education sector.
Not that there are any easy days as such but certainly since the Budget was delivered last Thursday, there has been considerable unrest, anger and uncertainty over the amount of funding and quality of education our public system will be able to provide, given the constraints placed upon it by the Government.
Education Minister Hekia Parata has had her fair share of discomfort, facing up to angry principals among others, and has had to do what appears to be some pretty serious back-pedalling on the issue of classroom sizes in particular.
The move to rein in expenditure and direct funding to perceived high-return areas by increasing class sizes at some levels hit a nerve with most of the population, it seems. But now it appears a double standard has been uncovered.
In Budget 2012 the Education Ministry awarded Wanganui Collegiate School more than $3 million over two years, effectively subsidising private education using taxpayer money. These are funds that could have been used to boost the coffers of our public schools where principals are being asked to absorb the cost-cutting into their already stretched budgets.
