POSTED: 30 Aug 2016
Two New Partnership Schools to Open Next year
The Government has signed off two more controversial partnership schools.
Te Kōpuku High in Hamilton and Te Aratika Academy in Napier will open next year, targeting Māori students.
Under-Secretary to the Minister of Education David Seymour says the schools will have a combined opening roll of 157, growing to a maximum of 500 by 2021.
He says Te Kōpuku High and Te Aratika Academy were selected from 26 applications received by the Ministry of Education during the third Partnership School application round.
The applications were assessed by the Partnership Schools Authorisation Board and the Ministry.
Mr Seymour says key criteria included the strength of applicants' educational offering, and their ability to improve the educational outcomes of students the education system has not served well.
"These new schools will help raise educational achievement, in particular for those groups of students who have not been successful in the mainstream schooling system," Mr Seymour says.
"I would like to acknowledge the hard work and advocacy of the Māori Party. Both new schools have Kaupapa Māori special character and this reflects the Māori community's embrace of the policy."
The move brings the total number of partnership schools to ten nationwide.
Te Pumanawa o te Wairua was closed in March after being plagued with problems.
Source: TVNZ