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The growing class divide in New
Zealand’s education system
When students entered New Zealand schools and
universities in February for the new academic year, they did so under
conditions of a deepening crisis of the public education system. The
pervasive imposition of “user pays” at every level of education has
created growing financial burdens for parents and widening class
disparities in the type of education available for students.
Public education in New Zealand was once upheld as a basic social right
and widely regarded as a mechanism for ensuring at least a measure of
social equality. The touchstone of education policy was established by
Clarence Beeby, director of education from 1940, when he was appointed
by the first Labour Government. In a statement prepared for Labour prime
minister Peter Fraser, he wrote; “every person, whatever his level of
academic ability, whether he be rich or poor, whether he live in town or
country, has a right, as a citizen, to a free education of the kind for
which he is best fitted and to the fullest extent of his powers.”
The reality proved to be somewhat different as educational opportunity
was always stacked against the working class. In New Zealand, this meant
that working class families, particularly Maori and Pacific Island
students from among the most oppressed sections, have always featured
disproportionately in figures relating to educational disadvantage.
Despite the limitations, however, the availability of public education
reflected a certain social advance, compared to the lack of
opportunities prior to World War II.
Over the last two decades, there has been a sharp
reversal. Beeby’s dictum about the right to free education suited to
individual needs is now honoured only in the breach. Public education at
all levels has been starved of funds and run down to such an extent that
students and their families face significant costs. Labour bears the
chief responsibility. The present education policies were initiated by
the Lange-Douglas Labour government in the late 1980s, and then extended
by subsequent National Party and Labour governments.
Under the “Tomorrow’s Schools” and “Learning for Life” programs, the
free-market model was imposed at every level of education. Elected
governing bodies were modelled on private sector boards responsible for
fiscal oversight. Principals were turned into CEOs accountable for
financial performance and the delivery of measurable educational
“outcomes”, which were often decided by Treasury. In the tertiary
sector, Labour ceased to fund the full cost of courses, and in 1990,
introduced a flat $1,250 tuition fee. Universal student allowances were
abolished.
Over the last 15 years, successive governments have cut education
funding, forcing individual institutions to make up the shortfall. The
burden has increasingly fallen on parents in the form of charges and
fundraising, resulting in a widening gulf between “rich” and “poor”
schools. In the struggle for funds, schools in wealthier areas have far
more leverage than those serving working class areas.
Figures released last month suggest that parents of a
child entering the public education system this year face costs
totalling more than $NZ60,000 ($US44,574) — more than twice the average
annual wage — up to the completion of a university degree. A survey by the
Australian Scholarships Group (ASG) showed that a typical five-year
program in a state secondary school costs around $10,000 for materials,
school “donations”, uniforms and associated charges. The figure rises to
over $18,000 for state-integrated schools, which are fee-paying
religious schools subsidised by the state. If parents then support a
child through university, they will need another $50,000 for a basic
three-year degree.
The ASG itself is a product of this new environment. It operates as a
non-profit trust in Australia and New Zealand, providing a scheme for
parents wishing to save for their children’s tertiary education costs.
It therefore has a stake in highlighting the expected future costs of
education. Nevertheless, its figures are likely to be conservative. Not
included in its calculations are education costs in the primary sector,
catering for students aged 5 to 12 years. The New Zealand Herald cited
one primary school in Auckland which levies a $400 donation per pupil
per year, as well as applying a “user pays” philosophy with charges of
up to $160 in activity fees for class trips, camps and photocopying.
A three-year study of 18 schools conducted by the School Trustees
Association (the umbrella organisation representing governing school
boards) reported last September that schools could not continue to
provide students with the current standard of education “if they relied
on government funding alone”. Another study by the Council for
Educational Research (CER) found some schools rely on what is
euphemistically called “locally raised funds” to provide basic
resources, including staffing, rather than the “extras” for which such
funds were intended. There are some 3,000 teachers nationally who are
paid from these funds rather than the central payroll system.
Education spending
Government spokesmen claim a steady increase in
overall education spending — up 13 percent in real terms since 1999 — as a
major step forward. As a percentage of total government expenditure,
spending on education has risen from 14.4 percent a decade ago to 17.3
percent last year. These figures are misleading, however. Over the past
five years, Labour has kept a lid on spending to ensure record budget
surpluses — this year’s is forecast at $NZ7.4 billion. Education spending
as a percentage of GDP has in fact declined over the period from 6.3
percent to 5.9 per cent.
Moreover, the increase since 1999 barely makes up for the 10 percent
effective erosion of school funding over the previous decade. Nor is it
enough to cover the significant new costs associated with computing
technology as well as a host of new assessment systems, a new national
qualifications structure and a layer of authoritarian and bureaucratic
measures for school “accountability”.
Spending on compulsory schooling has fallen as a
proportion of the whole, while more money has gone to private providers
offering vocational and specialist programs in the post school sector.
Since 1987, over 900 private training establishments (PTEs) have been
created, with 234 of these currently receiving a total of $264 million
in government subsidies.
A layer of entrepreneurs has cashed in on government funding for
“second-chance education” for Maori and Pacific Islanders. The Wananga o
Aotearoa, currently under scrutiny over allegations of financial
mismanagement, is the main example. It began in the mid-1980s as a small
PTE, but has since grown into a national institution catering for over
30,000 students and receiving some $250 million annually in government
funding.
The public education system — at both school and tertiary levels — is
increasingly reliant on privately sourced funds. Ministry of Education
figures show that locally-raised funds from all sources have steadily
increased, as a proportion of the government’s operations funding to
schools, to more than 12 percent of the $900 million non-salary
component of school budgets. Direct parental contributions are expected
to top $220 million this year. The CER study showed the average amount
raised by school communities by their own unaided efforts is as high as
$300,000.
Specific cases include Macleans College in the affluent Auckland suburb
of Howick, which raises 48 percent of its operating budget from
non-government sources, including parents’ fees and charges levied on
105 foreign fee-paying students. At Meadowbank Primary School, also in
Auckland, a family with four children enrolled would be required to pay
up to $1,350, even with “discounts” for multiple family members. The
Seatoun School in Wellington, asks parents to pay $320 a child, with
further special activity fees of $180 for students in years 7 and 8.
Most well-established schools in better-off areas have
boosted their resources by aggressively entering the market for foreign
fee-paying students. These schools are able to charge overseas students
$8,000 to $10,000 each, with the government taking an extra $900 levy.
In 1999, there were 5,044 fee-paying international students at the
secondary level; by 2003 there were 17,488. There is some evidence that
the overseas student market is now in trouble, with the number of Asian
students declining markedly in the last two years.
Working class schools
Schools in working class areas, however, have never
been able to raise significant extra funding. Some are simply insolvent.
More than 50 schools have begun 2005 in the hands of statutory managers.
Most are in working class neighbourhoods, such as Nae Nae and
Wainuiomata Colleges in Wellington, both of which have had serious
budget blow-outs. The managers are moved in to oversee the school’s
finances, but effectively take control of the whole range of school
activities, including staffing and curriculum decisions.
Schools in the very poorest areas do not even ask for donations as few
parents can afford to pay. Several years ago, a furore erupted after
some schools engaged debt collection agencies to demand money from
parents. The practice only stopped after the education minister was
forced to clarify that “donations” were voluntary and not legally
enforceable. That does not prevent schools from requiring a range of
payments, including materials fees, sports fees, photocopying costs and
the like.
The steady erosion of public education has had a
devastating impact on students. According to a report published in
December by the Ministry of Social Development, perversely titled
“Opportunity for All New Zealanders”, New Zealand has one of the widest
disparities in education achievement of any developed country. It showed
that while the upper 17 percent of children tested in the international
top 10 percent in reading benchmarks, the bottom 16 percent did not
reach the lower quarter. The range of scores was wider than most other
countries tested, including Sweden, England and the US.
The report drew the conclusion that New Zealand has a long “tail” of
underachievement, and that the linkages between low education
achievement levels and “low socio-economic status” are “stronger than in
many other OECD countries.” Moreover, nearly 20 percent of students
leave school without a qualification, the number of students leaving
before the age of 16 is rising and progression to tertiary education
remains low for working class students. Levels of school suspensions,
reports of bullying and violence, youth suicide and truancy levels are
high by international standards.
Students who make it to university face some of the
highest tuition fees in the world. A 2001 study by New York’s Buffalo
University, reported recently in the Sunday Star Times, ranks New
Zealand fourth in the world for fees at public tertiary institutions.
The average costs are higher than at similar public institutions in
Australia, the US and the UK. By comparison, many countries, including
Germany and Sweden, do not charge fees.
The situation is getting worse. Despite a policy restricting annual fee
increases to less than 5 percent, Otago University raised its medical
and dental fees by 10 percent this year by claiming “exceptional
circumstances”. The Auckland University medical school and the Colleges
of Education in Dunedin and Christchurch did the same. The
government-funded component of tertiary course costs has been declining
for a decade. Ten years ago students paid 25 percent of the cost of
their study, now it is almost 30 percent.
Under Labour, the average cost of course fees has continued to rise,
with fulltime students paying about $6,000 in fees compared with $4,468
three years ago. Over the last five years, the number of people with
student loans has risen by 70 percent and total debt has more than
doubled from $3 billion to nearly $7 billion. When the loans scheme
started in 1992, 1.6 percent of the population aged over 15 years held a
study loan. Last year this reached 13.2 per cent. According to a survey
by the NZ University Students’ Association (NZUSA), tertiary students
owe an average of $18,726 each — a combination of student loans, bank
loans, money borrowed from parents and credit card debt. Half of all
students are ineligible for any government financial assistance.
Labour boasts that the student loan scheme has
“removed barriers” to tertiary education. Its spokesmen refer to the
fact that the proportion of the population with a university degree has
doubled since 1986 to 14.2 percent. But on top of the difficulty of
finding work, students are now burdened with huge debts. The average
graduating loan is $20,000, and begins attracting interest at commercial
rates the moment study is complete. It is not uncommon for students in
more expensive courses — such as medicine, dentistry and veterinary
science — to graduate with debts of between $50,000 and $100,000.
NZUSA figures show male students take an average of 15 years to pay off
their loans and female students take 28 years, causing hardship and
personal dislocation for many young people trying to get a start in
life. Again the hardest hit are those from poorer families who cannot
call on their parents for assistance. From the moment that students
enter primary schools to when they finish their education, the “user
pays” education system is increasingly stacked in favour of the wealthy.
It is one more indication of Labour’s open renunciation of the
egalitarian principles it once espoused in word at least, if not in
deed.
John Braddock
10 March 2005
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/newz-m10.shtml
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