One very good Charter School Decision - and awful info on agency salaries.

Nathan and Yvette Durie are, based on achievement data, the very best educators on Maori High School students in NZ.

Manukura, as Designated Character School in Palmerston North, has been their previous - and amazing project. Since I begane looking at achievement data for LEAVERS over the last six years Manukura (with primarily Maori and low decile students) has been in the top 10 - 20 schools and consistently ahead of many of the "greats" - e.g. Auckland Grammar.

This new today is so very good.

Today, the former Māori Anglican boys’ high school, St Stephen’s, now known as TIPENE, will be officially opened as a charter school for Term 1, 2025.

To tell the truth - Nathan and Yvette should have been able to write their names on the back of an envelope and be approved. To discover today that it has taken 18 officials on an average salary of $158,889 to get 6 tiny schools - and St Stephens across the line is stunning. $2,860,002 to do a job a very, very poorly compared to 1 person (shout out to Drew Preddy) in 2013 - 2017.

How can a government that promoted efficiency so startly produce the opposite?

I have OIA's in on how many people are employed on the MInistry of Education overall at December 1. Under Labout it had ballooned to 4,200. National and ACT promised to return it to pre-Labour levels (2,700). We will see.

Alwyn Poole
alwyn.poole@gmail.com