The Education Ministry's sale of Taihape Area School's educational farm asset to put into the Treaty settlements landbank has divided a community and raised issues over the legality of the move.
Ministry of Education accused of stealing Taihape teaching farm nzherald.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nzherald.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The teaching farm, once owned by the college and now leased by Taihape Area School.
Photo: Supplied
Taihape people established the teaching farm on 13 hectares next to Taihape College 30 years ago but the Ministry of Education has taken it and put it in the landbank for Treaty settlements, and the school can now only lease it.
The Ombudsman is looking at whether to investigate. It s very unfortunate. I think you could effectively say that the community asset has been stolen by the Education Ministry, Rangitīkei National MP Ian McKelvie said. And of course, it s gotten into the process now where it s very difficult to get it back from.
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Taihape Area School is getting a rebuild. a decade after flaws were exposed.
Photo: Google Maps
But that won t begin until next year, a decade after Taihape Area School s myriad flaws were exposed, and in the meantime it faces whopping power bills to keep its classrooms healthy.
Its former board of trustees chair blames official incompetence, and fears that the rebuild on proven less-than-stable land won t go well.
But the school says its existing site is OK, its existing classrooms are healthy - which the Ministry of Education echoes - and that the rebuild will be fantastic .
More than 250 children who attend years 1 to 13 at the 60 percent Māori school, face another winter in spaces described like this in official reports that have ping-ponged back and forth since 2014.