Parata failing her own consultation guidelines

Labour's Earthquake Recovery spokesperson, Lianne Dalziel, is challenging the Minister of Education to respect her own guidelines when consulting with communities over school closures and mergers.

“I asked Hekia Parata in Parliament today how she expected schools to properly consult with their communities during Term 4, when they have so much to attend to, including exams, school reports and end of year prize-givings.

“I asked if she would allow an extension until the end of Term 1 of next year to those schools who seek an extension.  She gave no such commitment, instead saying she would spend a lot of time in Christchurch in coming weeks.

“Well, she will get a loud and clear message from the people of Christchurch – the Government needs to slow down, and listen to school communities.

“Those same people are also dismissing the Minister’s consultation process as a sham – and a letter I tabled in Parliament from more than 80 people who attended one of the weekend functions to celebrate Aranui Primary's centenary noted how shocked they were at how little time had been allowed to develop a response to such a major proposal.

“Hekia Parata is ignoring her own Ministry guidelines which state there must be sufficient time for views to be expressed, and require the Ministry to develop options after discussing the issues with the school communities.

“She has only announced one option for each school and they only have until  December 7 to put up a response.

“The Minister has not been clear about how school learning clusters were being engaged in the proposals to close and merge schools within their clusters, either. Again that also fails to meet the guidelines for consultation

“The Government has botched this process from the word go.  But the future of education in Christchurch is too important to get wrong.

“Hekia Parata should take a deep breath and allow schools the time they need to respond,” Lianne Dalziel said.