CHAPTER 7 - School Government in New Zealand: Balancing the Interests

Abstract

This chapter discusses school government in New Zealand. One of the main aims of the New Zealand School Committees Federation is to protect and extend the place of lay personnel in the national system of education. This is clearly evident in the Federation's specific policies which currently include the need for School Committees (SCs) to report regularly to parents, to bring forward the needs of the community when new teachers are being appointed, and to be consulted about the development of school-based programs which suit particular community needs. The SCs are the electoral base for the Education Boards, a distinctive and unusual procedure, based on the idea that those who secure election have nearly all served on SCs and hence have a recent first-hand knowledge of conditions in the schools, and that those entitled to elect them generally have a higher than average interest in education and are in a position to assess the competence or otherwise of the Board member for their ward. To obtain the views of as many local communities as possible the Extension Departments in the six New Zealand universities were asked to organize public discussion groups. The New Zealand experience has shown that it is possible to have considerable formal provision for lay involvement in school government at the local level within a basically centralized education system.