Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

No teachers on charter school working group

Updated at 7:44 pm on 28 March 2012

Groups representing school teachers, principals and trustees say more teachers and principals should have been appointed to the Government working group on charter schools.

The Government has chosen no teachers and one current principal for its working group.

The seven member group named on Wednesday is led by a former ACT party president Catherine Isaac.

Associate education minister John Banks says the group has the right mix of business and education experience to develop a New Zealand version of the charter school.

However, the Secondary Principals Association says it is surprised the Government's working group has no principals or teachers from low decile schools.

Association president Patrick Walsh says most of the seven members of the group named appear to be political appointments or academics.

Working group membership

The full membership includes business people, academics and a former Christchurch mayor, Vicki Buck.

As well as Ms Buck, the working group comprises businessman Tony Falkenstein; Michael Hollings and Hana O'Regan from the Maori education sector; and Margaret Southwick and John Taylor from the tertiary sector.

A pilot programme in South Auckland and Christchurch is part of the confidence and supply deal between the National and ACT parties in government.

Overseas, the schools are fully government-funded, but free of many of the rules that govern other state schools.

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