English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:618;Page:13917] 
4.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: Does he stand by his February statement that with regard to schooling arrangements to be imposed in Invercargill “it is not my intention to put enrolment schemes where they do not currently apply.”; if not why not? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have been advised that the Minister’s reply will be a little longer than usual. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
: 
 Had the proposals I put forward in February been accepted there would not have been any need for any new enrolment schemes to be put in place. However I subsequently agreed to the mayor and community trust’s suggestion for a mediation process which resulted in the retention of small rural schools close to Invercargill at least one of which is on a limited site. I am not prepared to rule out an arrangement that gives students living in the area immediately around a rural school priority over those students coming out from town. Obviously where we are building new buildings and there is room priority will be given to meeting parents’ preferences thereby reducing to a minimum the need for enrolment schemes. 
Hon Bill English 
: Is the Minister now saying he did not mean what he said to a meeting of almost a thousand parents in Invercargill—that when he closed up to a dozen of their schools he would move to stop the parents from choosing what other school to send their children to? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No not at all. If the member had listened to my answer he would have understood. The changes that were proposed in February would have resulted in substantial building at most Invercargill schools and it would have been possible to have the buildings where the parents wanted to send their kids. In this case the result of my acceptance of the mediation has meant that some small schools including at least one rural school on a very limited site where there is not room for an unlimited number of children have remained. There may not be room on that very limited site for all the children who want to go there. My preference is that the rural kids who live next to the school should have the right to go there. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Why in reorganising schools in Invercargill in order presumably that enrolment schemes would not be needed has he decided to shut down middle-school and intermediate school education in a way that returns the structure of schooling in Invercargill to that which last existed nationally in the 1920s; and why is he so antagonistic to intermediate and middle-school education? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: There was an extensive process in Invercargill. There was a mediator who established the views of the community and I agreed with the mediator. 
Hon Bill English 
: Is the Minister aware that his officials have told Waihopai School to restrict its numbers Tisbury School to implement an enrolment scheme and Salford School to keep its enrolment scheme in place and shrink its numbers; if his answers to this House are correct why are his bureaucrats enforcing enrolment schemes in three Invercargill schools? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I do not have in my head the details of all 30-odd schools in Invercargill. I do know that Salford School has had an enrolment scheme for some time. If there is currently room for students at that school if they fit on the school site and the school has the appropriate buildings there are not grounds for reducing the numbers and they will not be reduced. Tisbury School is a rural school with a limited site. There is not room for a large number of extra students. The reason I am supporting that school being zoned is so that the kids who are rural and live next door to it have a right to go there. [ 
Interruption 
] The reason I have changed my tune as silly Nick Smith says— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister knows he cannot say that. He will stand withdraw apologise and finish his answer concisely. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I withdraw and apologise. The reason I have changed my tune is that the mediator recommended that the school stay open. I agreed with her. 
Hon Bill English 
: What would the Minister say in answer to Mr David Begg who attended the meeting along with almost a thousand other Invercargill parents who has said that there had been a perception there would be no enrolment schemes next year and “Perhaps we misunderstood what the ministry said.”? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: The ministry did not speak at the meeting. I did. 
Mark Peck 
: Is the Minister prepared to tell the House whether Tisbury School would prefer to have an enrolment scheme or whether it would prefer to close which was the original proposition in the first model? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I was very strongly advised by the people of Tisbury School that they would like the school to stay open. They convinced the mediator that that was appropriate and I agreed with her. Mr English might want to go back to the original plan but I do not think the people of Tisbury School want to.