Obituary

Alan Peachey

The news of Alan Peachey's passing beyond the sight of mortal men has not been unexpected; his battle with cancer over a number of years was well known. 

He will be remembered as a high performing, no-excuses teacher and principal.  He remained all his career thoroughly committed to the public education system.  That commitment led him into not infrequent conflict with teacher unions and educrats.
  He had realised that the government education system had become the biggest obstacle to quality education.  If a school were to excel it had to fight the unions and educrats that dominate the Ministry of Education and educational policy. 


His finest hours arguably were as a principal of Rangitoto College, New Zealand's largest secondary school during his tenure.  He was an unashamed advocate for his staff, his school, and his pupils--anyone or anything which stood in their way of quality education and high achievement was instantly identified and focused upon on his radar screen. 

He was one of the first principals not just to insist that in the final three years of secondary schooling, pupils needed teachers with post-graduate qualifications, who had a demonstrated comprehensive grasp of their subjects.  He acted consistently with his convictions.  Upon discovering that New Zealand teacher graduates increasingly lacked such competence in their subjects--and struggled to string a coherent sentence together--he regularly went to the UK to recruit quality staff.  Not a move to endear him to the teacher unions and the "system". 

Under his watch Rangitoto College excelled not just in academic achievements but in many cultural endeavours and sporting success.  Peachey attended hundreds of events in his own time--on the sideline or in the audience--in support. 

He entered Parliament with the goal of reforming the government education system.  In that sense he was a reforming politician.  He very definitely wanted to make a difference.  He was the best kind of conviction politician.  Unions and educrats were in his sights.  Sadly, soon after entering Parliament, he was stricken with cancer, which he battled over many years. It impeded him taking on more senior roles in government.  

John Key paid tribute to him yesterday: 

Prime Minister John Key, on the election trail in New Plymouth today, said he would be deeply missed in the National caucus.  "It was with sadness that he stood down just as we went into the election period with the knowledge that he was very very unwell.  "It's just tragic he's been robbed of that further time spent with his family," Mr Key said. . . .

John Key said Mr Peachey had hoped he was in remission.  "He's been battling against that and was never going to give up. He fought very hard but in the end the cancer's got him and that is very very sad."  The Prime Minister said Mr Peachey had wanted to stay on in Parliament: "he always felt he had a lot more to do."  He said in caucus Mr Peachey was "determined, quite focussed, opinionated and not afraid to say what he thought or to challenge the system. "He passionately believed in what he was talking about."

 He was an excellent educationalist.  He was also a rare politician--one who wanted to make a reforming difference over the right issues in a field in which he was an actual, not academic, expert and to which he was passionately committed.  Would that we had twenty like him.  That's all it would take to achieve a thorough reformation of the government education system.