MySpace

	Thursday, 20 November 2003

Big Boys Lego?

I wish we had the luxury of walking out of the Ministers plans as easily as he threatens to walk out of the meetings that he calls!

If closing our schools is not about saving money, not about educational outcomes and not about falling populations (don't forget that the network reviews are being applied to high schools, that are forecast to increase numbers), then what are the network reviews really trying to achieve?

Here are just some of the theories I have heard:

That Labour is trying to unwind Tomorrow's Schools.
That Labour is trying to save money in the rest of the country so that it can be sent to Auckland
That Labour is trying to remove parental choice
That Labour is trying to prepare schools for a paradigm shift in education.
The Labour government that introduced Tomorrow's Schools was trying to save New Zealand. This one is trying to control New Zealand.

I don't know the truth. Does anyone?

At the Upper Hutt meeting I listened intently, trying to glean a clue about the underlying motives. And when Trevor Mallard started to talk about the network review in Wainuiomata he came to life. He became animated. His hands moved as he described how he had had the schools designed for future relocation. They curled as though wrapped around little models as he described merging the schools. And a dreadful thought struck me – I was watching a child in the adult, playing with his Lego blocks. Our schools. Our children.

Whatever the reasons, network reviews are costing Labour support. I feel that Labour is attacking our children. And I know that there are many others who feel as I do.

comments? []
8:11:52 PM