A Northland principal says the Government's inventing a bureaucracy in its crackdown on school truancy.
This year's Budget has $140 million for getting kids back in school - with a new case management system and better data monitoring.
Horahora school principal Pat Newman says schools should be in charge of what happens with the funding.
"We don't need Big Brother sitting over us from Wellington, giving directives and telling us how to do the job. We're actually more skilled in it."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now Associate Minister of Education, David Seymour has announced our
one hundred and forty million dollar funding boost to tackle
truancy in schools. Seventeen million dollars will go towards frontline services,
while the bulk, which is one hundred and twenty three
million dollars, will go towards setting up a new attendance agency.
Now Pat Newman is the principal of Ho Ho To
School and he is with me. Now, Hay, Pat, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Back here, killa.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Been a while, Yeah, has been a while. Now do
you like the look of this or no?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well? I firstly leaped up and down. I thought mister
Seymour was finally doing something really useful. And then I
looked at it and one hundred and forty million is great,
even though we know where the money came from, which
is on what they say, from not paying woman. But
I then looked at where it's going. He's inventing another bureaucracy.
(00:48):
That's where it's going. He's inventing a bureaucracy that has
not worked in the past. On that way, we have
told him time and time again that the school handle it.
Give us the funding, give us the rest of it.
We don't need big brothers sitting over us from Wellington
giving directives and telling us how to do the job.
(01:09):
We're actually more skilled in it. The one hundred and
forty million over two and a half thousand schools is
about sixty five thousand each. Give it to us and
we could do something with it. I could tell you
now how I could end up. I could tomorrow get
another twelve kids in the school every day, if I
could get another thirty thousand bucks.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
How would you do?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, We've already put aside twenty five thousand of our
own money this year out of our OPS grant, and
I'm now desperately out there trying to raise a difference
to buy a van, another van. We've got two running already,
to bring kids to school.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, okay, so you reckon Evan solves the problem, which
suggests that the problem for the kids is not that
they don't want to go to school. They do want
to go to school, they just can't get to school.
Is that what you're experiencing?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah? And finally I noticed in this thing, he's noticed
that that socio economics might just have something to do
with it, which I thought was quite a surprise for
us to see more. But he does. He actually acknowledges that. Fine,
so perhaps, well, he's always seems to blame parents rather
(02:17):
realizing that there is a cause, which is called socio economics,
which is not a blame on parents. It's the reality
of where the government has dropped them.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Oh I see, okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So he actually sees that they'll give more money to
schools and or high socio economic or low socio economic areas.
So to me, it might The question I've got is
would the money be better spent on putting another bureaucracy
with computers that are supposed they're going to solve it
by checking who's not there, or actually solving the real problem,
(02:49):
which is socio economics.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Hey, how much of a problem is kids wanting to
sit on the PlayStation.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's not actually during school time, we're not having that problem,
but it's definitely a problem, definitely, But it's the problem
starts at birth, where the PlayStations or those sort of
things that are the automatic babysitters, and people get it
very Mums and dads get very excited because the two
year old can sit on the tablet and they think
(03:19):
it shows that they're a genius. It doesn't. In fact,
it starts. It's the start of the rot. In my opinion,
I've got to be careful. I'm seventy two, but suddenly
might say that because I meanders throw it's not. It's
actually from what I see with the experience.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I'm a lot younger than you, and I can tell
you you'll bang on and I think most parents and grandparents
will agree with you. Hey, listen, I just want you
to take on something here. So David Symour got a
bit of he got the mayor's backs up the other
day because he asked if the mayors could help him out,
you know, just getting the community to be involved, and.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Kind of there wasn't ideos meaning what was he meaning?
He told them he actually said that it was their
job to get out. He changed as the as the
responsors came back. Mister Seymour did change his view to
a degree.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
What did he want the mans to go walk the
street and get the kids?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, that's what I was saying, yeah, And then what
he was saying get out and do stuff and you've
got a responsibility there. That was basically what do you say?
I actually said on Breakfast show quite directly, mister Seymour.
This is not their job, but I want to ask you,
this is mister Semour's job.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I want to ask you about this though, because the vibe,
the impression I got was that he was just trying
to basically rally the community. But is the community doing enough? Pat?
Are we doing enough when we see kids wandering around
during school? What should we do it?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Look, we ran it very successfully. Then we ran out
of money because the government grants came. But we did
work up here. What the government needs to be doing
is using the television and other forms of media who
sell the message that being in school is important, that
we're there to help.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
But why can't we do it? We're parents, we're grandparents.
Why can't we If we see snotty little Johnny will
around at twelve, go what do you do get in school?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah? It would be really nice, And we were getting that.
We're saying is looking over the fence in the neighbors
with the kids at school, saying, hey, listen, what can
I do to help to get the kids to school?
And that's the whole thing of what I was trying
to say is that, But we need to have something
driving it. So people actually think it's all right to
do that. A lot of people say, oh, we can't
(05:29):
reach over there. They might, it's not our business, you
know what I mean. And what we've got to do
is to reinvent the community because we don't have communities
in town, we don't have communities in city, so we've
going to reinvent them.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
You are quite right, and it's actually incumbent. It is
incumbent on ourselves. I suppose I personally think it's incumbent
on us to just set that community up again. Pat,
always good to talk to you. Thank you, mate, Pat
Newman to hold a school principle. For more from Heather
Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
ust on iHeartRadio
Now Associate Minister of Education, David Seymour has announced our
one hundred and forty million dollar funding boost to tackle
truancy in schools. Seventeen million dollars will go towards frontline services,
while the bulk, which is one hundred and twenty three
million dollars, will go towards setting up a new attendance agency.
Now Pat Newman is the principal of Ho Ho To
School and he is with me. Now, Hay, Pat, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Back here, killa.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Been a while, Yeah, has been a while. Now do
you like the look of this or no?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well? I firstly leaped up and down. I thought mister
Seymour was finally doing something really useful. And then I
looked at it and one hundred and forty million is great,
even though we know where the money came from, which
is on what they say, from not paying woman. But
I then looked at where it's going. He's inventing another bureaucracy.
(00:48):
That's where it's going. He's inventing a bureaucracy that has
not worked in the past. On that way, we have
told him time and time again that the school handle it.
Give us the funding, give us the rest of it.
We don't need big brothers sitting over us from Wellington
giving directives and telling us how to do the job.
(01:09):
We're actually more skilled in it. The one hundred and
forty million over two and a half thousand schools is
about sixty five thousand each. Give it to us and
we could do something with it. I could tell you
now how I could end up. I could tomorrow get
another twelve kids in the school every day, if I
could get another thirty thousand bucks.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
How would you do?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, We've already put aside twenty five thousand of our
own money this year out of our OPS grant, and
I'm now desperately out there trying to raise a difference
to buy a van, another van. We've got two running already,
to bring kids to school.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, okay, so you reckon Evan solves the problem, which
suggests that the problem for the kids is not that
they don't want to go to school. They do want
to go to school, they just can't get to school.
Is that what you're experiencing?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah? And finally I noticed in this thing, he's noticed
that that socio economics might just have something to do
with it, which I thought was quite a surprise for
us to see more. But he does. He actually acknowledges that. Fine,
so perhaps, well, he's always seems to blame parents rather
(02:17):
realizing that there is a cause, which is called socio economics,
which is not a blame on parents. It's the reality
of where the government has dropped them.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Oh I see, okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So he actually sees that they'll give more money to
schools and or high socio economic or low socio economic areas.
So to me, it might The question I've got is
would the money be better spent on putting another bureaucracy
with computers that are supposed they're going to solve it
by checking who's not there, or actually solving the real problem,
(02:49):
which is socio economics.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Hey, how much of a problem is kids wanting to
sit on the PlayStation.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's not actually during school time, we're not having that problem,
but it's definitely a problem, definitely, But it's the problem
starts at birth, where the PlayStations or those sort of
things that are the automatic babysitters, and people get it
very Mums and dads get very excited because the two
year old can sit on the tablet and they think
(03:19):
it shows that they're a genius. It doesn't. In fact,
it starts. It's the start of the rot. In my opinion,
I've got to be careful. I'm seventy two, but suddenly
might say that because I meanders throw it's not. It's
actually from what I see with the experience.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I'm a lot younger than you, and I can tell
you you'll bang on and I think most parents and grandparents
will agree with you. Hey, listen, I just want you
to take on something here. So David Symour got a
bit of he got the mayor's backs up the other
day because he asked if the mayors could help him out,
you know, just getting the community to be involved, and.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Kind of there wasn't ideos meaning what was he meaning?
He told them he actually said that it was their
job to get out. He changed as the as the
responsors came back. Mister Seymour did change his view to
a degree.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
What did he want the mans to go walk the
street and get the kids?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, that's what I was saying, yeah, And then what
he was saying get out and do stuff and you've
got a responsibility there. That was basically what do you say?
I actually said on Breakfast show quite directly, mister Seymour.
This is not their job, but I want to ask you,
this is mister Semour's job.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I want to ask you about this though, because the vibe,
the impression I got was that he was just trying
to basically rally the community. But is the community doing enough? Pat?
Are we doing enough when we see kids wandering around
during school? What should we do it?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Look, we ran it very successfully. Then we ran out
of money because the government grants came. But we did
work up here. What the government needs to be doing
is using the television and other forms of media who
sell the message that being in school is important, that
we're there to help.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
But why can't we do it? We're parents, we're grandparents.
Why can't we If we see snotty little Johnny will
around at twelve, go what do you do get in school?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah? It would be really nice, And we were getting that.
We're saying is looking over the fence in the neighbors
with the kids at school, saying, hey, listen, what can
I do to help to get the kids to school?
And that's the whole thing of what I was trying
to say is that, But we need to have something
driving it. So people actually think it's all right to
do that. A lot of people say, oh, we can't
(05:29):
reach over there. They might, it's not our business, you
know what I mean. And what we've got to do
is to reinvent the community because we don't have communities
in town, we don't have communities in city, so we've
going to reinvent them.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
You are quite right, and it's actually incumbent. It is
incumbent on ourselves. I suppose I personally think it's incumbent
on us to just set that community up again. Pat,
always good to talk to you. Thank you, mate, Pat
Newman to hold a school principle. For more from Heather
Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
ust on iHeartRadio
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