Abby Washington 7540433

It was in August

1988 when tomorrows schools were set up and introduced to New

Zealand. David Lange lead this radical change with the intentions to reform Education
Administration in NZ. This meaning more immediate delivery resources to schools, more
parental and community involvement, and greater responsibility for teachers. These changes
were built and adapted around the Picot Report which was released earlier in the year
promoting the idea of Administering for Excellence (Tomorrows Schools, n.a). In this
essay I am going to focus on The key aspects of this reform these being: Welfare-Liberal
policy and Neo-liberal policy. By unpacking these two key areas I will be able to critically
reflect on the positive and negative changes with the introduction of Tomorrows Schools.
This essay will reveal specific assumptions about children in education, uncovering how
these policies have shaped New Zealands education today.

New Zealand has injured two major changes in education over the years. The first major
change being the 1887 education act. The passing of this act established New Zealands first
free system of primary education recognised nation wide. However looking back
historically before the introduction of the 1887 act, children would attended school that was
governed either by the provincial government or a church school both having the most
influence on the establishment of formal provincial education. This had a negative impact
on low socio economical families as fees were still charged and although low they denied
the poorest children from schooling (Simon & Massey, 1994). Because of erratic variations
of education standards across New Zealand it was deemed as unfair and unequal as there
was no unity with differences in quality and quantity of education across the 12 provinces in
New Zealand (K. Nairn, 30 July, 2013). The introduction of the newly centralised system
strongly reflected the welfare-liberal policy becoming responsible for funding and the
curriculum meaning New Zealands schooling was all following the guidelines. This act
promoted the ideas of education being Free, Secular and Compulsory (K. Nairn, 30
July, 2013)

The second major change in New Zealands education which I will critically reflect on came
about in 1988. This was the introduction of Tomorrows Schools. Picot the man behind
the formation of Tomorrow's Schools believed the previous 1877 act was Over-

Abby Washington 7540433

centralised, outdated, inefficient , Inflexible, with unnecessary bureaucracy (K. Nairn, 30

July,

2013). Because of his beliefs Picot scaffolded Tomorrow's Schools proposing to

promote excellence, be more efficient & responsive, encourage community input and
assume individual competence. However these radical ideas were not approved by all.
Critics agreed to some extent but were doubtful Picot could successfully achieve them. The
key areas that I am going to reflect on showing both negative and positive impact are:
decentration, andidea of competition and marketing schooling.

A major turning point in New Zealands education was the shift to decentralised as welfare
systems were cut back and a emphasis on the market and competition was seen as the best
way for New Zealand to emerge from the dire economic situation (Carpenter, 2009, p.3).
With this new simpler structure it provided families with the opportunity to be able to have
initial involvement and input in their childrens education as layers of management and
administration where reduced. However not only did it have positive outcomes for families
and teachers providing them with more responsibility and easier accessibility to resources it
also had undeniable negative effects. Those in wealthy communities excelled in
marketisation leaving socio-economic (SES) areas to become more disadvantaged & gaps
between rich & poor (Carpenter, 2009, p4). This statement shows us the clear contrast
of the negative and positives of the welfare-liberal policy.

Competition enables education success (K. Nairn, 6 August, 2013). This neo liberal
assumption presents the idea that competition in schooling creates a false assumption of
higher success rate. The introduction of Tomorrows Schools meant that schools became
self managing enterprises, in competition with each other for pupils, resources and
teachers(Carpenter, 2009, p3). Tomorrows Schools brought about a lot of change in the
way schools promoted themselves. Schooling now nation wide is marketing and branding
themselves through various ranges of advertisements in order to attract consumers. This
held negative impacts of unequally with winners and losers generating a sense of
hopelessness (Waslander & Thrupp, 1995, p. 19). Another assumption surrounding
competition is that families have the right

to

choose where their children are being

educated, but due to effective marketing schemes popular winning schools were becoming

Abby Washington 7540433

over crowed giving them the opportunity to cherry pick children depending on financial,
academic and sporting successes. You dont really get any choice because we cannot
accommodate. Last year we turned away about 150 [year 9 enrolments]. (Waslander &
Thrupp, 1995, p. 19). This statement from a principals perspective shows the struggles
competition brought to education.

Another liberal assumption is the idea that all children enter education on the same level
playing field not taking into accountability the childs current and prior background which
undoubtedly has impact on the childs current ability in education. In New zealand the
education policies focused on equality of access rather than equality of opportunity, creating
what is often described as a liberal-progressive approach to education (Carpetner, 2009,
p3) They believe that there is a equal amount of opportunitys in areas such as: resources
and qualifications, but is this really the truth? every student is for there own and it is their
responsibility to grasp and excel in their own education. Despite this welfare liberals
strongly acknowledge and promote the disadvantages children can face depending on area,
gender and ethics The evidence of underachievement by low ses and Maori groups was one
of the reasons for change. (Carpenter, 2009, p3). This shows the governments reasonings in
trying to change New Zealands education around to assist with all ethnic groups.

In summary Tomorrows Schools resulted in radical changes in the structure of New

Zealands education system resulting in more positive outcomes of those more popular top
of the league table in wealthier areas, but causing the lower decile schools to struggle.
These ideas both positive and negative discussed throughout the essay outlined the effects
on the children. The change involved the diminishing of the Education Department,
Education Boards and School Committees where these where replaced with Ministry of
Education, Education review office and a Board of Trustees. The introduction of Board of
Trustees ensured all parents were directly connected and involved in the school, ensuring
all parents their children were gaining a promising education.

Abby Washington 7540433

References
Carpenter, V. (2009, 15 July) Education, teachers and the children of the poor. Paper presented at
the Researching Professionals Symposium, University of Otago College of Education, Dunedin.
Nairn, K., Higgins, J. & Sligo, J. (2012). Children of Rogernomics: A neoliberal
generation leaves school. Dunedin: Otago University Press
Picot, B. (1988). Administering for excellence: effective administration in
education. Wellington: Taskforce to review education administration
Tomorrows Schools, (n.d). Tomorrows Schools. Retrieved from http://
schools.reap.org.nz/tanui/Jubileepages/Tomorrows%20Schools.htm

Waslander, S. & Thrupp, M. (1995). Choice, competition and segregation: an empirical analysis of a
New Zealand second