A new 600-pupil primary school in West Auckland and an 18-classroom expansion for Ormiston Senior College are among the projects to be funded through a $100 million package to address growing school rolls.
Education Minister Erica Stanford will speak today from Westgate, Auckland, to outline the funding package. It will be livestreamed at the top of this story.
The announced $100m had been “freed up” through the Government’s drive for more standardisation in school property design, which she claimed had reduced the price per classroom by 28%.
Last year, the Government indicated it would consider a new entity to manage the country’s school portfolio.
An inquiry, led by former Foreign Affairs Minister and National MP Murray McCully, included scathing criticism of the ministry’s handling of the $30 billion property portfolio and found its ability to deliver cost-effective and timely development was lacking.
Stanford said the new funding would progress several projects to help ease roll growth pressures, including a new 600-pupil primary school in Massey which would come with two “satellite learning support spaces” for Arohanui School in Te Atatū.
It would also fund an 18-classroom expansion for Ormiston Senior College and a two-storey block of 10 new classrooms at Scott Point Primary School in Hobsonville.
The package included upgrades for several kaupapa Māori schools. Two classrooms would be added to Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Koutu in Rotorua, three new classrooms at Manutuke School in Gisborne and two new classrooms at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Whakarewa I Te Reo Ki Tuwharetoa in Taupō.
Te Kura Kaupapa o Hawaiki Hou in Gisborne would also get four new senior school classrooms and be given a permanent site after leasing an “unsuitable learning environment” for seven years, according to Stanford.
“Detailed planning for all projects is underway, with construction set to begin soon after,” she said, stating her priority was to complete the projects as “quickly and efficiently as possible”.
Stanford claimed the “reinvestment” had been made possible by improving the “cost-effectiveness of new builds using standard designs and off-site manufacturing”.
Her press release did not detail the extent of cost savings but it claimed there had been a 28% reduction in the average cost of a classroom, a 30% increase in the number of classrooms delivered and a 35% increase in the “number of standardised or repeatable designs”.
Education Minister Erica Stanford. Photo / Mark Mitchell
President of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation Leanne Otene said the funding was a good start but more was needed.
She highlighted the minister’s inclusion of funding for Kaupapa Māori Education and satellite classrooms for those with learning difficulties in the new West Auckland school as positive steps forward she wanted to see.
However, she said the money would not be enough to fill the need for healthy and safe classrooms around the country.
Consultation opens for new sex education curriculum
Today’s announcement comes after consultation opened for the new sex education curriculum that Stanford hopes takes some heat away from the anxious schools.
Stanford told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning that schools that feel too uncomfortable to confront aggressive communities and the new curriculum will have the Government doing community consultation instead.
She said there would still be strong opinions, but hoped to shoulder the bulk of it.
“Direct that angst at me, do not direct it at your schools.
“I’d rather that I’d take the heat on that.”
The curriculum would be out for public consultation later this year.
“[The public opinion] is very split, which is why I am doing this, not asking schools to do it.”
Stanford said the old curriculum was dated and required schools to get feedback every two years.
“We have to say to parents ‘This is exactly what’s been taught. If you want to have a conversation in advance ... or if you want to pull them out and do it yourself, or if you would like the school to do it, that is your choice’.”
She disputed claims that puberty was not being taught until secondary school and said it is in the curriculum from Year 5.
Stanford also said talk about consent would be taught much earlier under the new course but wouldn’t start immediately in terms of sex and relationships until later.
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