Kerre Woodham: What's the point in keeping intermediate schools?

One of the emails that did come in for the Prime Minister caught my eye, and I thought, you know, this is not a silly idea. It might be. I think there's some merit and discussing it and I'd love to run it by you.  

It was from the Elephant Beetle Think Tank and a quick Google found that no such thing exists, probably a couple of people enjoying a glass of wine and having chats, but none the less... it questions why we still have intermediate schools. There are 116 intermediate schools that remain within the education system, and according to the Elephant Beetle Intermediate School plan, there would be huge cost savings without the fixed costs of operating intermediates, which can be diverted into the remaining school system.  

The operating budget for running the network of intermediates is big and there are massive savings to be had, potentially. The savings could be diverted into providing better outcomes in education, perhaps paying teachers more. Then take the land that the intermediate schools are on, which is generally in prime position in the middle of communities, in the middle of cities, in the middle of towns, and convert them into housing developments with 30% or so of the residences reserved for service workers like police, teachers, and nurses at subsidised prices and with better mortgage interest rates. As intermediate schools typically sit in the middle of established residential areas, there is little issue or a big strain on creating the infrastructure to do this. Create a mix of high and low rise housing, utilising the existing school halls etcetera as community centres and thereby creating a new utopia.  

Now obviously it's going to be more difficult than that, more expensive than that, but it's not a bad idea because what purpose do intermediate schools have? My daughter went to Ponsonby Intermediate and it was a very, very good school, but if the same teachers had been either at extended primary schools or at extended colleges... it was the people who made the education, it wasn't the fact that it was an intermediate school.  

You look back at the history of intermediate schools and they've been neither fish nor fowl. They were set up in 1922, initially to act as a kind of sorting gate to steer kids either into the trades or into academic courses. That's why you did the cooking and the metal work at intermediate. A study done on intermediates, ‘The New Zealand Intermediate School Experiment - Caught Between Two Schools’ was done by the Waikato Journal of Education and they said directors and Ministers of Education were unable to provide guidance for intermediate schools, thus, they found neither a clear nor consistent philosophy to justify their existence. Consequently, intermediate schools were left to develop in their own ways, in the hope that a role could somehow be found for them.  

When there was a review of the development and progress of New Zealand Intermediate schools in 1938, the author of the report said the cause for surprise is not that the schools should have lagged along the road, but that they should have gone so far since no one has ever known quite what they were doing. And the authors of the Waikato Journal Report say nearly 60 years later, the intermediates are still no closer to discovering and developing a clear educational philosophy and identity.  

And you would have to wonder, what is the point of them? You could easily, I would have thought, even with the pressure on school buildings, amalgamate them into either primary or secondary schools. And a lot of campuses are year 7 through to 13, and then you have all of that space freed up to do with as you wish, and all of that money freed up to do with as you wish. Now, presumably there are ideas against this, and I'd like to hear them because so far I've just heard the idea for and it doesn't sound like a b

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carry wood of morning's podcast from
News Talk sed B. One of the emails that did
come in for the Prime Minister caught my eye and
I thought, you know, this is not a silly idea.
It might be. I mean, I think there's some merit
in discussing it and I'd love to run it by you.

(00:28):
It was from the Elephant Beetle think Tank, and a
quick google found that there are no such thing exists,
but probably a couple of people enjoying a glass of
wine and having chats. But nonetheless, and it questions why
we still have intermediate schools. There are one hundred and
sixteen intermediate schools that remain within the education system, and

(00:50):
according to the Elephant Metal Intermediate School Plan, there would
be huge cost savings without the fixed costs of operating intermediates,
which can be diverted into the remaining school system. The
operating budget for running the network of intermediates is big
and there are massive savings to be had. Potentially, the
savings could be diverted into providing better outcomes in education,

(01:13):
perhaps paying teachers more. Then, take the land that the
intermediate schools are on, which is generally in prime position
in the middle of communities, in the middle of cities,
in the middle of towns, and convert them into housing
developments with thirty percent or so of the residents residences
reserved for service workers like police, teachers, nurses, at subsidized

(01:36):
prices and with better mortgage interest rates. As intermediate schools
typically sit in the middle of established residential areas, there
is little issue or a big strain on creating the
infrastructure to do this. Create a mix of high and
low rise housing, utilizing the existing school halls such as etc.

(01:57):
As community centers, and thereby creating a new utopia. Now,
obviously it's going to be more more difficult than that,
more expensive than that, But it's not a bad idea
because what purpose intermediate schools. I mean, my daughter went
upon some of the intermediate and it was a very
very good school. But if the same teachers had been

(02:18):
either at extended primary schools or at extended colleges, it
was the people who made the education, wasn't the fact
that it was an intermediate school. You look back at
the history of intermediate schools and there've been neither fish
nor fowl. They were set up in nineteen twenty two

(02:42):
initially to act as a kind of sorting gate to
stare kids either into the trades or into academic courses.
That's why you did the cooking and the metal work
at intermediate they according to a there's a study done

(03:04):
on intermediates, the New Zealand Intermediate school experiment caught between
two schools, and that was done by the Waikato Journal
of Education, and they said directors and Ministers of education
were unable to provide guidance for intermediate schools. Thus they
found neither a clear nor consistent philosophy to justify their existence. Consequently,

(03:30):
intermediate schools were left to develop in their own ways
and the hope that a role could somehow be found
for them. When there was a review of the development
and progress of New Zealand intermediate schools in nineteen thirty eight,
the author of the report said the cause for surprise

(03:51):
is not that the schools should have lagged along the road,
but that they should have gone so far since no
one has ever known quite what they were doing, and
the authors of the Waikato Journal report say, nearly sixty
years later, the intermediates are still no closer to discovering
and developing a clear educational philosophy and identity, and you

(04:13):
would have to wonder what is the point of them.
You could easily, I would have thought, even with the
pressure on school buildings, amalgamate them intoere the primary or
secondary schools. A lot of campuses are year seven through
to thirteen, and then you have all of that space

(04:37):
freed up to do with as you wish, and all
of that money freed up to do with as you wish. Now,
presumably there are ideas against this, and I'd like to
hear them, because so far I've just heard the idea
four and it doesn't sound like a bad one. But
if the reason to keep them is just because they've
always been there since nineteen twenty two, I don't think

(04:59):
that's a good enough reason for more from carry Wood
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