Parata HekiaHon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): I thought it would be helpful if I rose to answer some of the concerns that have been raised by members in the Committee and alleviate those concerns for them. I want to talk about a number of issues that have been raised in this part of the bill. The first is the concern about enabling principals to be in charge of more than one school were their boards to be agreeable to that. What this provision reflects is the underlying driver for this entire bill which is how we create flexibility for schools and their communities to make choices that better meet the needs of their children and young people. All children are different and they have different needs. Parents should be able to determine what the best options are for their children. In terms of principals being able to manage more than one school—again it is not a compulsion and it is not a prescription. It is an enabling of this to occur and it is a facilitation of a choice. It is providing flexibility for those communities that deem that to be the best way of meeting their needs to take up that opportunity. Clearly no principal who thinks this is beyond their ken would put themselves in that situation nor would boards that did not feel that they had the range of skills required for carrying out that responsibility. The member Jenny Salesa has identified a remarkable principal who is leading an excellent school and who was recognised through the supreme award of the Prime Minister's Education Excellence Awards this year. But the fact that that principal makes that one choice does not compel all other principals to make the same choice. That is the choice that she freely makes but others may wish to make other choices and what this provision does is enable that to occur. There has also been concern expressed that this would then require principals to become chief executives rather than leaders of learning. Well newsflash—they already are chief executives. They are responsible for running the budget their staff their property and their communications with parents and leading the curriculum and all of the teachers within their school to ensure that kids get the best education and that they are able to demonstrate that. I do not know why being a chief executive is described as some kind of disparaging term. A principal is the chief responsible for executing responsibilities within their school. Again just to alleviate the concerns of the Opposition no principal is going to be compelled to take up this opportunity but it is going to be there should a community wish to do so. In the same theme of flexibility the bill provides in Part 1 for there to be flexible hours. It makes very clear that there needs to be blocks before noon and after noon but then the school can decide in consultation with its community whether it might wish to be a little bit more flexible. We saw that that flexibility worked extremely well in Christchurch for instance. In fact with all the challenges that burdened that community it not only coped but flourished with flexibility and with the sharing of resources. I can tell the Committee that the achievement levels of the Greater Christchurch region have continued to go up so it was not compromised by the notion of flexible hours. Let me come to the point of consultation. Some concern has been expressed by two members tonight about consultation. On the one hand Catherine Delahunty was concerned that consultation might not be wide enough and on the other hand Tracey Martin was concerned that it might be too narrow and prescriptive. The possibility was entertained that those involved in commerce who pay tax which in turn funds schools might actually also be included in the consultation. Again to alleviate that member's concern let me just read out what the actual provision does say in terms of that consultation. It says that a board may vary the time at which any 1 or more half-days take place (for example by starting a second half-day before noon) if the board—(a) has adequately consulted parents staff the local community and any other person who the board considers may be affected about the proposed variation and it is generally acceptable;". There is no prescription as to who is in or out of the consultation Catherine Delahunty. It leaves it to the judgment and discretion of the people concerned which is that school and its community and that is as it should be. Another assurance I can give members is that as I announced recently over half of all schools now—catering to 410000 students—are in communities of learning. Communities of learning by definition track an end-to-end pathway from early childhood through primary school secondary school and on to a connection with whatever tertiary options could be made available to young people in that community. That means that as those communities of learning make determinations about what hours work for them families who have children in early childhood education in primary school or in secondary school will be part of a whole pathway of a community to make a decision about what hours work for them. But let us not resile from everyday reality now—right now it is complex for parents who have chosen for their children to be in different schools to get them all there by 9 o'clock. That is a complexity. It is just on the other side of this particular challenge. Members have been concerned about providing more opportunity for other providers to offer partnership schools or kura hourua and what this bill also offers is the opportunity for tertiary education institutions to participate in that process. It does not require them to do so but it enables them if they wish to take up the opportunity to have another option of providing educational choice to communities that might want it. I would like to remind members of the Committee—if they knew and if they did not I would like to tell them—that when kura kaupapa were first promoted the amount of opposition about whether this option should be allowed or not how it would compromise learning—Chris Hipkins: And which Government promoted them?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Good point—good point. I am not questioning which Government. The example I am giving is that as new models have been introduced into our country there has been opposition at different times. One of the reasons why our education system is characterised as being a world-leading one is the range of diversity of options the priority of parental choice and the focus on ensuring that whichever option it is young people are getting the best education possible. That is what kura hourua offer—another option. Nobody is required to take them up just as no one is required to go to a kura or a State integrated school or a single-sex boys' school but parents should have that choice. Why would they not? Why would we not in this act of democracy of Aotearoa New Zealand provide those choices? So again underlying not just this part of the bill but the others that we will go on to debate are these very core principles of flexibility of choice of parents being able to exercise that and of ensuring that there are different models and different options available to young people. I have just one final remark about the opportunity for a principal to lead more than one school. We already have examples of that. So for instance there are already appointed 26 community of learning leaders whose jobs include leading across communities of learning that can have six to 12 to 20 schools in it. They have taken on those opportunities with their eyes wide open their energies raised and their enthusiasm engaged as they focus not only on how they lead learning for those young people but how they also stretch their leadership ambit. We want more challenges for leadership in our education system. We want to see ourselves growing that quality because we know that the quality of teaching and leadership makes the most difference within schools. So I am hoping that I have alleviated the concerns of the Opposition that these are all about enabling choice. They are not about directing instructing or prescribing them but rather it is about choice being available to parents who know their children best. Thank you."