As a graduate, and a former employee, of the Tech system I’m delighted that the government is going to replace the crazy centralised nonsense driven by the last government.
In an article https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/504215/te-pukenga-to-be-replaced-with-8-10-institutions-minister. RNZ noted that the new Minister had stated:
“In essence the institutions are still delivering the training, they are still doing their own finance, their own payroll, their own admin, their own IT.
“So they have been continuing to run and deliver education and training while this big bloated head office and lots of money being spent on consultants had been writing strategies and preventing the individual institutions from making sensible choices and sensible decisions.”
The new government was looking at keeping eight to 10 institutions across the country with some shared services where it made sense, she said.
“What we aren’t talking about is a big heavy bloated head office that slows down decision-making and stops innovation and stops communities having a say on what goes on in their local polytechnic.”
Consultation on which eight to 10 institutions will remain needs to get underway, she said.
“We need to be talking to those campuses, we need to be talking to those communities and those industry leaders.”
Decisions about things like staffing would be done at a regional level, she said.
We had a perfectly good institution in Christchurch, Ara, and we need to take it back. The technical system has served us well for over 100 years. It has been owned and managed in this city and that’s what we should return to.
So, a big clap for the Minister of Education on this excellent call.
I agree Gary. This lot are doing something right. However is it the Minister of Education or the Minister of Tertiary Education Penny Simmonds you are referring to?