Peachey Allan: Education Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Peachey Allan: Education Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10860] 
ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 I also would like to take a few minutes to echo the words of the Opposition spokesperson on education Trevor Mallard and offer my congratulations and those of the National Government to the top scholars who were honoured today. I had the privilege over a number of years of attending that function. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: There was one there from Rangitoto College wasn’t there? 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
: I believe there was I say to Mr Mallard; I would be surprised if there was not. On occasions I had the privilege of leading the school that had the most top scholars in New Zealand. I pay my respect to those students. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Grace Abbott for German. 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
: I thank the member. 
I also pay my respects to their teachers. I used to say to the youngsters who were competing for scholarships—and it is a competition; there is no sense in beating round the bush—that the edge they would have nine times out of 10 would be in the quality of their teachers. Great teaching is what gives a youngster that little bit of edge that enables them to compete against other youngsters of equal ability who benefit from that quality of teaching. 
I have a couple of comments on the Education Amendment Bill. I recall the Education and Science Committee hearings well. We operated under quite a bit of time pressure. We operated under quite a bit of time pressure and we got through and had the bill reported back. I appreciated the assistance and the cooperation of all the members of the committee and the officials. 
I will make reference to one part of the bill that I think is particularly important and that is the provision on the governance of schools. For far too long schools have been allowed to fail. Plenty of reasons excuses and explanations have been given. One of the greatest ones which was brought back to me by thinking about the top scholars today was that New Zealand has a world-class schooling system. In many ways it does but that cannot be an excuse for the long tail of failure that is occurring. One of the things that we have learnt over recent times is that good governance and good principals can turn round a failing school very very quickly. I need look no further than my own electorate of Tamaki where two examples in particular stand out: Point England Primary School and Tamaki College. With changes of leadership and enlightened governance things suddenly began to move. I have also had the frustration of trying to get action where a school has been failing and it has taken too long. The only people who suffer from that are the students. I am delighted that this bill is providing the mechanism to give far quicker and far more effective intervention when it needs to be occurring before the problem gets so bad that the community votes in large numbers with its feet. 
We must also remember—and this will be my final point—that the easiest way to fix a failing school is to replace the principal. Great principals will run great schools regardless of the calibre of the board but with a great board and a weak principal the school will not flourish. That is the easiest and most straightforward way to fix failing schools. This House cannot do that and legislation cannot do it; it has to be a decision of whoever is governing the school at the time. Now as a result of this legislation the Government will have much greater flexibility in dealing with those failures and dealing with them in a timely and effective manner. I certainly welcome that part of the bill. I commend the bill to the House.