Sourced Content
Wellington, April 28, 2021
Education New Zealand website says that its job is to ensure that every child has access to a local school.
“This means that we need to be aware of and plan for population growth as well as changes and population shifts in the short–term and much further out as well. To do this, we consider population projections, local council information, enrolment data, and how well schools are utilised.”
Managing transition
While growth is happening across the country, Auckland in particular has been experiencing significant and sustained growth and by 2030 the estimate is that there will be 60,000 more school-aged children in the region. To meet that demand the Education Ministry is building new schools and classrooms and looking at enrolment zones.
Enrolment schemes and managing down out-of-zone students are tools used to manage down utilisation at schools.
“We have always tried to include siblings of existing students as part of the transitional arrangements when putting in or amending an enrolment scheme. That will not change,” the Ministry says.
In Auckland, about 58% of schools already have enrolment schemes.
Phases of development
Last year, the Ministry began a three-phase enrolment scheme programme for the region.
Phase One of the Programme introduced or amended enrolment schemes at 47 schools taking effect from term one this year. The Ministry is currently finalising the enrolment schemes for six schools from phase one.
There are 55 schools in Phase Two of the Auckland Enrolment Scheme Programme (including the six schools carried over from phase one whose enrolment scheme will take effect in term two). The Ministry is speaking with the boards of the schools involved in phase two and expect to start some community consultation by June.
Community Consultation
Community Consultation will include public and school meetings, public notices through community newspapers, letters, surveys and schools’ communication channels.
It is anticipated that most of the enrolment schemes or amendments will take effect from Term One 2022.
The Ministry has not yet finalised the schools which will be involved in Phase Three but will be working to a similar timeframe with enrolment schemes or amendments taking effect by Term One 2023. Consultation is also ongoing on a number of changes to the Education and Training Act. One of the proposed changes is around the priority order of enrolments for out of zone learners.
The Ministry is consulting on lowering the priority for siblings of former students and removing the priority for children of former students as a priority group.
There is no plan to change the priority for siblings of current students.
About Education and Training Act 2020
The Education and Training Act 2020 allows for transitional provisions to be included in an enrolment scheme, to allow for siblings of current students to enrol at a school, even when their residence is no longer in the new (or amended) home zone.
This reflects the Ministry’s aim to keep siblings together at the same school rather than having parents and caregivers with children at separate schools.
If it is agreed that out of zone siblings can be enrolled by right, it will take longer for the impact of the enrolment scheme to take effect.
This means that the Ministry will consider supporting the transitional arrangement only where having the additional siblings means that the school is not overcrowded, and there is still space for the in zone students.
The current enrolment priorities are (1) Students accepted into a special programme run by the school (2) Siblings of current students (3) Siblings of former students (4) Children of former students (5) Children of board employees and board members and (6) All other students.
Option One is to retain the existing priorities.
Under Option Two, the enrolment priorities will be (1) Students accepted into a special programme run by the school (2) Siblings of current students (3) Children of board employees and board members (4) Siblings of former students and (5) All other students.
Under Option Three, the enrolment priorities would be (1) Students accepted into a special programme run by the school (2) Siblings of current students (3) Children of board employees and board members (4) All other students.
Special programmes for the purpose of enrolment schemes are programmes that have been approved as special programmes by the Secretary for Education and offer special education, Maori language immersion classes, or any other type of specialised education to overcome educational disadvantage.
Proposed Changes
Public consultation began on proposed changes to the Education Training Act 2020 on April 21, 2021. They include (a) How school board elections are run (b) Ensuring all education employees are Police vetted before they begin work (c) Strengthening and clarifying Teaching Council of Aotearoa processes dealing with teacher conduct (d) Enabling the Educational Review Office to review professional learning and development services, and (e) Possible changes to the priority categories for out of zone enrolments in state schools.
If there are any changes to priority categories resulting from this consultation, these would not be introduced until 2022 at the earliest. This means that the current priority categories will continue to apply for students and schools for the time being.
Andrea Schöllmann, Deputy Secretary Education System Policy said, “The proposed changes are designed to encourage greater and more diverse participation in the governing of our schools, to strengthen student voice in our schools, and to improve the safety and wellbeing of all learners. They also support continuous improvement in education services.
Vocational Education
Other proposed changes would enable vocational education to respond better to the needs of industry and learners.
These include giving government greater flexibility to make changes to the requirements on tertiary providers charging a Compulsory Student Service Fee (CSSF); using the National Student Number to support workplace-based learning and giving the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) greater discretion around cancelling a Private Training Establishments (PTE) registration.
Public consultation closes Wednesday, June 16, 2021.
The Education and Training Amendment Bill, approved by the Cabinet, will be enforced shortly. Its content includes expanding the timeframe that prohibits tertiary providers from charging trainees a compulsory student services fee and ensuring that former teachers can only use physical restraint if they are approved by the school that employs them, along with other technical changes to the Education and Training Act 2020.
The above story has been sponsored by
