By JULIE MIDDLETON
Only nine in 100 children at New Zealand's poorest schools get a satisfactory mark in School Certificate - and zoning rules are blamed for their underachievement.
The statistics have been revealed by the Minister of Education in response to a parliamentary question from Act MP Donna Awatere Huata,
who said the figures were proof that the zoning scheme - which keeps children at their nearest school - stopped parents from seeking a better-performing school elsewhere.
"Nine out of 100 children at decile one (the poorest) schools got an A or B pass in School Certificate last year," she said. "At the richest schools, half the children got an A or B mark.
"School Certificate is the bare minimum our children need to succeed. And yet at the poorest schools, 70 per cent of the kids are destined to get a D grade."
Zoning, she said, was "robbing bright kids of any future by forcing them to go to poor schools that perpetuate a cycle of failure. What hope do they have?"
Maori and Pacific Island students were particularly disadvantaged because one in five Maori and four in 10 Pacific Islanders attended decile one schools.
In contrast, one in 100 Europeans attend decile one schools.
The figures, from last year's results, show that A and B School Certificate passes in decile one schools went to just 9 per cent of students, while D grades went to 70 per cent.
Decile five schools recorded 26 per cent A or B grades, and 40 per cent D grades.
At the wealthiest decile 10 schools, A or B passes went to 48 per cent of students, and D grades to just 20 per cent.
A University of Auckland education expert, Professor Tom Nicholson, said students from poorer schools had "little chance of making it in terms of literacy skills and getting qualifications. Zoning stops these children from escaping the poverty trap."
Without zoning, parents "have the opportunity to get their kids to another school."
Education Minister Trevor Mallard said he accepted there were problems in low-decile schools. But zoning was not the cause of the poor results.
"The vast majority of these children got their education under the non-zoned system."
But in some lower-decile schools, there was a history "of accepting educational standards which are not good enough."
Just 18 per cent of the country's schools had enrolment schemes, Mr Mallard added.
