Thirty years ago there were four primary schools in our valley. Now there’s just one.
The closures weren’t without emotion and often most of it was from people who didn’t have children at school.
One of the reasons cited most by these people was the importance of the school for a community focus.
That might be a benefit of schools but it’s not a good reason for keeping one open when the roll’s dropping, the costs of keeping it open outweigh the benefits and the pupils can get as good an education somewhere near by.
Once a school roll starts dropping it tends to snow ball. Parents become concerned about their children having the same teacher for more than a year and see more opportunities for sport, cultural activities and friendships at a bigger school near by. They transfer their children, the roll drops and more parents become concerned.
By the time our local school closed there were only about 10 pupils at it but it employed a full time principal and four part time staff – a principal relief, teacher aide, secretary and someone who looked after the grounds. The expense of paying them and maintaining the school made the cost per child much greater than when the school closed and the pupils moved to a bigger school just a few kilometres away.
The parents, staff and community here accepted the inevitability of the closure. Some at Aorangi School in Christchurch have fought their school closure all the way to the High Court which ruled that the closure should go ahead.
If the people opposing the closure really care about the pupils and their education they should put the closure behind them and put their energy into making sure the children get the best education possible at their new schools.
Hear, hear, HP. Couldn’t agree more.
The local rural school 8km out of town closed with about 10 or so pupils of varying ages about seven years ago. Falling rolls for ages apparently. I remember a lot of noise, Chicken Little style, from townies of all people. The locals just got on with the inevitable, the kids in the next calendar year either went to boarding school or town schools. The community is still A-OK and the sun still comes up each day.
The only reason this Aorangi got legs is because it was associated with Key and there was political mileage to be had. Wouldn’t mind betting it was driven solely via Labour.
After seeing footage on the TV the other night; my comment would be, why can’t the parents and teachers sell the benefits of the change to the kids instead of letting them wallow in the emotion. Are we breeding a tribe of children who don’t know how to adapt to changes in their lives? God help them if they suffer the trauma of a natural disaster.
Very sensible post HP.
But not, of course, the line that got Jo Goodhew elected for Rangitata.
A National government closing uneconomic rural schools? Don’t hold your breath waiting.
Rosa – there’s a difference between closing schools one by one when rolls drop and there’s alternatives near by and the forced closures of lots of schools with no close nieghbours as happened under Trevor Mallard.
Some of the closures he forced ought to have happened, but not all and not all at the same time.