Schools Not Just Bricks, Mortar

The New Zealand Education Institute’s national president Irene Cooper argues why privatisation is a threat to schools. ———— ——– Malcom Plimmer’s letter in the Manawatu Standard (October 8) compares the National Party’s plans to have private companies build and own schools to the Ministry of Education’s recent leasing of office space and asks what the difference is.

NZEI Te Riu Roa’s 45,000 members would argue, that if we are talking building our schools, then the public does and should care who owns and controls it.

Building schools is not just about bricks and mortar, and creating a good learning environment is not the same as building a service desk.

Schools are learning environments for children for 30 hours a week.

In many communities, schools are also the hub for wider activities involving families and community groups both in and outside of school hours.

The real question advocates of privatisation need to be asked is: who benefits?

Students, teachers, families, or the big construction firms, the Macquarie Bank, and other private investors who are keen to turn profits out of education?

We know from research into the comparative economics of public and private early childhood education that taxpayer dollars are spent more efficiently – and the quality of education is improved – if dollars are spent in the public sector, and all resourcing is returned back to support teaching and learning, rather than to shareholders.

Education is too important to be left to the vagaries of the market.

If a company involved in building and owning schools suddenly decided to pull out or sell off its investment, where would that leave students?

If it decided to increase rentals to the point that a school could not afford the rent, or lease its buildings out to another tenant in order to get higher rent, how would children’s learning suffer?

Education cannot be run on such uncertainty.

If New Zealand wants to remain a first-world country with a first- world quality public education system, then who builds and owns our schools does count.

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(c) 2007 Evening Standard; Palmerston North, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.