No decision yet on south Auckland charter school

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A charter school for south Auckland may not be on the cards now after surprise comments from the chairwoman of the Government's working group at a meeting on a possible trial last night.

More than 400 people attended a public meeting run by University of Auckland's Faculty of Education at Otahuhu town hall in south Auckland last night.

University of Auckland's Associate Professor of Education Peter O'Connor said the audience was caught by surprise when Charter Schools Working Group chairwoman Catherine Isaac said no region had been settled on for a trial and south Auckland may not be in the mix.

Ms Isaac said Christchurch and South Auckland were given as examples in the confidence and supply agreement between Act and National but were not definite and no decision had been made on whether a charter school would eventuate in south Auckland.

She would not say if the working group had received expressions of interest from groups in south Auckland and denied the working group had made a U-turn on a charter school for south Auckland.

"No one is going to impose a charter school in any area. Most likely the demand would come from within the community.''

"We're not making any turns in any direction. It's not a question of doing a U-turn, it's a question of being as open as possible and looking at all the possibilities. We don't want to box anything in,'' she said.

"There seems to be a feeling there's some kind of agenda behind it but there absolutely isn't. The purpose is 100 per cent to try and find another strand in the strategy in lifting what are pretty appalling rates of underachievement in our schools.''

Act secured National's backing for the initiative as part of last December's post-election confidence and supply agreement between the two parties.

That document indicated that pilot schools would initially be set up in disadvantaged areas of south Auckland and Christchurch. Once those schools were successfully established, the scheme would be extended to other regions "as fiscal conditions permit''.

Ms Isaac said today that the meeting was largely opposed to charter schools and its audience was made up of education unions and teachers.

"I have to say it was a group who did not have an open mind on the subject. People were fully opposed to the idea, but I don't think they really understand what the idea is and they weren't especially interested in finding out,'' she said.

Professor O'Connor said Ms Isaac's comments questioned the inevitability of the Act-led charter schools initiative.

"She also announced there would need to be legislative changes to get charter schools operational,'' he said.

"The performance of Catherine Isaac at the meeting confirmed to many in the educational sector that her appointment was purely political. Clearly she has little idea of the complexity of the issues facing education,'' he said.

Labour's education spokeswoman Nanaia Mahuta said it seemed the Government was reconsidering its position on charter schools.

"If they were committed to doing something that worked in south Auckland they would look to a south Auckland-driven model and replicate that in mainstream.

"It's very clear in some schools in south Auckland that they have already got models that are working to lift achievement levels for Maori and Pacific students,''