The Gummint Education System

Holy and Sacrosanct

In New Zealand, educating the young has morphed into a false-religion.  It is holy.  It is sacrosanct.  It is put in a "special category". 

If you were a hotel chain and one of your hotels was so little used that its booking fell away to nothing you would rationally consider the future prospects for customers.  If there were no prospects of covering operating costs, let alone making a profit, you would move to shut down the hotel as quickly as possible, sell the assets, and reinvest.

Not so the Government Education System.  It is holy.  Schools can wither away to having no pupils and no enrolments in sight, but the Government Education System will keep right on going.
  Its teachers will front up faithfully every day and be paid for delivering imaginary lessons to imaginary children.  Its principal will administrate competently, ensuring that the roll of non-existent children was keep completely up to date and that all the required operating reports duly sent off to the Ministry.  The school's administrative officer will respond promptly to all correspondence and ensure that invoices are paid on time.

When lunchtime rolls around at Tuturumuri School, there's no bell, no rush for the playground. Instead, the only sounds are birds chirping and the distant mooing of cows.  There are no fulltime staff or pupils at the rural Wairarapa school, but it remains open, with the Ministry of Education continuing to pay its annual operating costs of about $250,000.  The school's roll has steadily fallen, from 25 in 2008 to just three last year. Those three have left, and there have been no enrolments so far this year.  [Stuff]

We can have some sympathy for a rural community which does not want to see a local school close.  But reality must be faced, fast.  Ah, but not when one is talking about closing a shrine or a  temple.  These places are special, and ordinary rules and practices do not apply.

According to the school's website, it has a part-time caretaker, release teacher and part-time office administrator.  New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) vice-president Rikki Sheterline said the situation in Tuturumuri was not unusual. "I've known of cases before where schools have gone down to no students then gone back up again."  Rural schools were in decline generally, with a couple closing annually.

Sheterline, who spent 37 years in rural schools, said the union's  position was that all schools should have two full-time employees, to deal with the workload and ensure the safety of children. 

Get this--even when a school has no pupils and no-one coming to enrol the empty school is required to maintain two full-time employees to ensure the work-load is done properly and children are kept safe.

"Ah, madam union officer, but there are no children."

"It doesn't matter. We are talking about schools, and they are shrines, holy ground, which must be maintained at all costs."

The Government Education System shows all the hallmarks of government enterprise.  It exists to serve its employees, of which, the more the merrier.  Thou shalt not be understaffed when you are dealing with holy things.