Which Parata to believe?

Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, November 12th, 2012 - 15 comments
Categories: education, Hekia parata, schools - Tags: , ,

It seems like John Key isn’t the only Nat politician prone to memory lapses, rewriting history, and changing their story every five minutes. Now it’s Hekia Parata’s turn. Here she is announcing her ill-fated plans to close and merge various Christchurch schools back in September:

Ms Parata said the closures and mergers were part of an effort to deliver better services to Canterbury students.

“Our priority is delivering a network that will meet changing community needs and deliver better outcomes for learners.”

Sounds impressive doesn’t it, a government in charge, making the tough decisions, moving forward together. But hold the front page, because here we are in November, and now with respect to some of the headline mergers Parata says:

Education Minister Hekia Parata is dismissing the now defunct idea from her department of merging major single-sex high schools in Christchurch as crazy. …

“Although I’m not from Christchurch even I knew it was at the crazy end of options,” Ms Parata told the Marae Investigates programme today.

Well golly gosh, which Hekia Parata should we believe? These plans put communities, pupils and staff through hell. And for what?

15 comments on “Which Parata to believe? ”

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  1. Dr Terry 1
    12 November 2012 at 9:35 am

    Need we believe either version of Hekia Parata? I have absolutely no belief in her. Nevertheless, I have some sympathy for several Government Ministers inasmuch as Key interferes in their portfolios. Like predecessor Muldoon, Key is pretty much the Minister of Everything, only a little more behind the scenes. When they err, of course he is quick to fix the blame on them, never himself.

  2. Kevin Welsh 2
    12 November 2012 at 10:18 am

    Why the fuck are they even proposing ideas, that they now admit are ‘crazy’, in the first place?

    • AsleepWhileWalking 2.1
      13 November 2012 at 9:27 am

      Mmmm, a second undisclosed agenda going on is what I’m guessing. Last night it was the “superschool” in the news combining primary, intermediate and college on one campus.

      In the face of overwhelming opposition from the community (think they said 97% opposed to the idea), Hekia says that instead of rejecting the idea another option would be to see how it could help the community or words to that effect but sounding like a parent dismissing the objections of a child prodigy.

      THEN she assures the worried / distressed school community that it is “just a proposal”. Yeah, she’s great.

      The school kids performed their songs to welcome the minister, adhering to generations of tradition and school kid conduct. I think perhaps the biggest message to the minister could well come from school kids refusing to politely perform and conform to the Ministry of Education’s directives. What are they going to do….suspend 50 primary school pupils for refusing to sing and dance for the minister?

  3. Tracey 3
    12 November 2012 at 10:32 am

    Didn’t she know how many old boys from Christchurch Boys’ High School vote National????

  4. Ianmac 4
    12 November 2012 at 11:08 am

    A glossy brochure was delivered in the letterbox here in Christchurch as I visit and pass. From the Ministry of Education it outlines the intentions for Education in Christchurch. Poorly phrased, and repetitive it claims an intention to realy lift the performace of schools but the only change that I can see is to form open plan classrooms. These were used in some schools from the early 80s. Can be very effective but not for all. A dumb document.

  5. marsman 5
    12 November 2012 at 11:50 am

    Porangi Parata? No just another neolib arsehole.

  6. Puddleglum 6
    12 November 2012 at 4:55 pm

    I remember on the day of the announcements Parata said this was “crunch day” for “some specific decisions” but there were “exciting” opportunities with other “propositions” such as “whole-of-life campuses“, “shared facilities” and the like.

    Is she now going to deny CGHS, CBHS, SBHS and AGHS such amazing opportunities?

    You’re right, Anthony – she’s suddenly gone feral on the very same proposals she was defending to the hilt. This is in keeping with some parents’ reactions to her ‘meet the schools’ visits: That she was just parroting MoE lines rather than answering parents’ questions with authority.

    Here’s the interview on the day from Checkpoint.

     

  7. You_Fool 7
    12 November 2012 at 8:57 pm

    Wait, wasn’t there a bit on Cambell Live tonight where Parata was defending the merging of schools in Christchurch, completly against the wishes of the community and with no defense of the plans other than “Do the best you can.”

    So is she for merging or against merging?

    I am confused about what this National Government is doing now…. well i suppose now isn’t the right word…. for about 4 years….

  8. Tracey 8
    13 November 2012 at 8:11 am

    Funny how they claim to listen and follow the people in everything except

    council mergers
    ecan
    asset sales

  9. Truth be Told 9
    13 November 2012 at 8:15 am

    The merger of those schools were never in the proposals. They were on developing documents that the media had but were never actually part of the proposals.

  10. tracey 10
    13 November 2012 at 5:07 pm

    I see the schools under the gun from parata in chchch are lower decile schools….