Hidden away in the Budget were government cuts to the Enviroschools Programme. Clare Curran has already posted on this issue, but I’ve been struck how much the cuts are resonating on the North Shore, where I work as a List MP.
Cuts to the Enviroschools Foundation and the Education for Sustainability advisory service mean that two thirds of the resources required to implement the programme are gone, with local government, who provide the remaining third, struggling to bridge the gap. Add to that Supercity uncertainty and Enviroschools are looking marginal.
Who cares? National should. On the North Shore, in the electorates of Wayne Mapp, Murray McCully, John Key and Jonathan Coleman, 49% of schools are Enviroschools and some of those, including the prestigious Rangitoto College will be forced to close the programme down. They’re not impressed.
Programmes in North Shore schools include trials for solar energy, sustained reduction in energy use, stormwater management systems, native and tree plantings, removal of coal fired heating, rain collection tanks, class vegetable gardens, composting, increased use of walking school buses and cycling to school, scientific research and biotechnology.
It’s a whole-of-school process around five theme areas : living landscapes, healthy water, eco buildings, precious energy and zero waste. It’s developed around action learning, where students enquire, investigate, practice cooperative decision making, action, reflection and evaluation.
It has environmental, educational, economic, social and community benefits, and operates on a partnership approach, involving Central and Local Government and the community. It’s popular and effective – and there’s a waiting list of more schools wanting to join the programme.
Enviroschools is internationally recognised, it enhances learning and action and it is developing future leaders among our young people with a keen interest in the environment.
So, why cut it?
Oh yes, I know. We have to make hard choices in a recession. Like giving $35m to private schools.
Chopping Enviroschools funding is as dumb as chopping Adult Education, but that’s what we’ve got with Chopper Tolley.
Real well educated is she, saying she likes the English poets: Wordsworth, and Yeats, who is Irish. God help us from her and the philistines now in power.
Sadly we cannot expect much more from this Minister but great you are highlighting how this cut will affect the North Shore schools. Not just this really valuable program has gone but look what she has done to the funding for children with Special Needs in schools. Her priorities are all wrong and she is so dismissive of the value of the ACE, Enviroschools and Special Needs programme.
25% of New Zealand schools are enrolled in the Enviroschools Programme. The $1.6 million per year cut by the Government is a very small price to pay to save the planet (we only have one). What a great investment that would have been for our children’s future!
Yes, it’s an issue for North Shore schools whose local council together with ARC is hugely supportive of the Enviroschools programme. If the Government is going to be so short sighted about our future then the community need to seek alternative solutions to funding. Students, teachers, parents and councils really care about the programme and it will not die. Any ideas anyone? How about a mini telethon or ’save our enviroschools’ campaign?