There was a time when mothers would help with children’s education at schools. There was time when we were not so politically correct and mums and dads would take children on school excursions.
But all that has changed.
Now mothers and fathers cannot enter the school unless they have signed in and then often they need to be chaperoned around the school. And now with social workers in schools parents are considered the enemy. The one who is abusing their children and need to be caught out. The family unit is now the cause for all the woes of children’s behaviours.
Could it be the father? Then we need women’s refuge intervention. Could it be the mother? Then we need CYFS intervention. Either way parents are pretty much left in the cold.
And all the while the schools get worse. They ARE unsafe for children. They HAVE been for years but the majority of schools would not accept it. No matter how much the parents told them.
But now things are so out of control no-one can lie any more. They are violent and full of drugs. The teachers are unsafe to teach and cameras are in place to capture bad behaviour.
Fact is; the cameras are in plain sight and the kids know where they are safe from the cameras. Yeap, not much has changed from when I went to school. If you don’t want to get caught you just do it out of sight.
Now we have police entering the schools in South Auckland and the parents standing along the boarders of the school grounds in the centre North Island.
Parents have been forced to take their children’s education into their own hands at a North Island school plagued by drug use, violence and the abuse of teachers and students.
And despite the Ministry of Education sending in a commissioner - its highest level of intervention - to sort out problems at Rangitahi College in Murupara nearly two years ago, a damning Education Review Office report says there has been little progress.
Yesterday, parents at the school 45 minutes southeast of Rotorua, were patrolling the college gates ensuring pupils were wearing the correct uniform.
Other parents were doing their bit to combat the school’s high absenteeism rate by picking up children in vans and getting them to school on time.
“We can’t be doing all the teachers’ jobs but we are trying to get more involvement from parents - that’s what our school needs,” said Melody Delamere, who has two sons at the college and heads a group called Parent Force. “What happens inside the school gates is their responsibility but we try and do what we can on the outside.”
A recent ERO supplementary review report of Rangitahi College revealed staff were forced into a situation where they were managing student behaviour rather than promoting learning and achievement.
The report said the decile one school, with a roll of 47 boys and 46 girls, was “not always a safe environment for staff and students”.
“There is evidence of verbal abuse of staff, disobedience by students, instances of theft, vandalism, damage to school property, bullying, fighting and use of illegal drugs by students.”
Levels of student achievement at the school were low - just a handful of students managed NCEA Level 1 in 2006 and none passed levels 2 and 3.
Commissioner John Carlyon, whose role is to change the policies, procedures, culture and relationships covering virtually all areas within the school, said the report was devastating. “It was accurate and with no surprises but it’s still hard when you see it written like that.”
Mr Carlyon, who replaced the school’s Board of Trustees in 2005, said it was crucial the community had more involvement.
“I have no doubt at all that until the school is able to work with the community in a partnership the school is going to continue to face difficulties, so I’m thrilled these groups are on board.”
He expected to see positive changes at the school this year. “It’s not optional, things have to change.
“I’ve been disappointed that the expectations we agreed to in 2007 were not achieved. I know it’s been hard for the school and management but I expected things to have been better.”
Ministry of Education schools performance manager Marilyn Scott said lifting the school’s performance was not something that would happen immediately. “Nor can it be one person’s job to fix an entire school,” she said in reference to Mr Carlyon.
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