This morning when I turned on the radio I tuned into another discussion about school zoning, decile grouping and educational choice between Mike Hosking and a representative of the PPTA.

And once again I heard a lot of broad statements that I don’t necessarily agree with.

First of all, the broad belief that our education system is bad because of little choice. Now in a broad sense choice is good and so is competition and the two go hand in hand. But the problem with competition is that there are winners and losers. With free choice in education then parents would flock to the schools that are perceived to be the best leaving those perceived to be bad to wither on the vine. There’s no-one from any side of the political divide that would think that’s acceptable. As the guy from the PPTA said all schools need to be the best they possibly can be.

Then there is the broad statement that parents know best about the education for their kids. First of all, ask anyone who’s been forced into educational or vocational choices by their parents against their will if they agree with that old chestnut. When it comes to choosing schools there are some parents who do the research but most just listen to the talk around the traps. Back in the 80s the editor of Metro Warwick Roger used to talk about this phenomenon a lot. The chattering classes he called them. Mums at kindy gossiping about schools. Dads at barbecues. Ask Peter Ellis in Christchurch about the chattering classes. Based on nothing but hearsay a band of parents can destroy a school in moments.

I have real experience in this. Go back 20 years or so and Ponsonby Intermediate in Auckland was in real trouble. Even though the suburb had gentrified around it the school suffered from the perception that it was full of lower socioeconomic troublemakers and was no good. The student flight was all on. The roll shrunk and shrunk until it was just 50 odd kids in a school built for 500.

Enter Iain Taylor as the principal who believed in his school and his staff but faced a battle to convince his local parents. Iain and his deputy Wim Boxen started a campaign which ended out with both of them going door to door to front foot parents and ask them to give them a chance.

It took 5 years but the school recovered its reputation. Now the roll is full and the ERO reports are great.

Ian Taylor left the school 9 years ago and went to Manurewa Intermediate which at the time was making news with 12-year-old drug dealers and other negative stories. Last year the school won the Prime Minister's Education Excellence Award for the second year in a row. Same teachers different result

Zones and teachers are often blamed for schools demises. More often it’s the lack of support from the community and their principals who are not prepared to fight against the gossip of the parents.

Getting rid of zoning and introducing competition would be great for a few schools that are already great. But for the majority of the education system, it would be a disaster.