Private Schooling More Popular In New Zealand

Yesterday, we mentioned the popularity of independent schooling in Australia.

Independent schooling in New Zealand has never been as popular as in Australia – but its popularity is growing.

In the year 2000 the Labour government changed the way pupils are selected for popular state schools in New Zealand. Until then, state schools were able to select pupils from outside the school’s immediate neighbourhood or “zone”. This meant, supporters of the old system claim, that pupils from impoverished homes with good academic results were able to attend the best state schools.

The current system outlaws active selection of pupils by state schools. If a popular school has extra places available after the children living “in zone” have been given a place, children from outside the zone are selected by ballot.

Property prices around the top state schools have risen rapidly. Only parents who can afford the elevated property prices inside popular schools’ zones can now be sure of sending their children to the best state schools.

Joy Quigley, executive director of Independent Schools of NZ, told New Zealand’s Sunday Star Times that some parents are now choosing private schooling because paying school fees works out cheaper than buying a house “in zone” for the best state schools. (Private school fees are typically much lower in New Zealand than in the UK. Highly rated private schools in New Zealand might charge around £4,000 – £6000 a year for fees.)

Mrs Quigley said that New Zealand’s 105 private schools would educate 30,000 children this year – up from 25,000 in 2000. In the same period, while enrolments at state schools have fallen, the number of pupils going to Catholic schools in New Zealand has increased from 62,000 to 66,000. Pat Lynch, head of the Catholic Education Office, told the Sunday Star Times that families, many not strictly religious, were opting for values-based education.

Four percent of New Zealand’s children will be educated privately in 2007, compared with 3.5 percent in 2000.