Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
The modern New Zealand Educational System is composed of many different types of schools. There are a wide variety of state schools reflecting different areas, religions, and gender policy. The state has pledged to retain the distinctive nature of the Catholic and other private schools integrated into the state system. As a result of the Governments integration policy, New Zealand has a relatively small private sector. Parental concerns over standards in the state sector mean that many parents continue to opt for an independent education.
New Zealand Catholics are mostly Irish immigrants.
Small numbers of Irish arrived in the 18th century. Most were transient whalers, sealers, traders, and the occasional convict from New South
Wales, Australia. Substantial numbers of Irish did not arrive until the appearance of Fencible soldiers and their families who settled at Panmure, Howick, Onehunga, and Otahuhu in Auckland between 1847-1852. It was not the Great Famine that drove the Irish to New Zealand, most of the emmigrants at the time of the Famine went to America or Australia.
Irish immigrants continued to arrive in New Zealand as part of military contingents to fight against the Maori, gold also became a major lure during the 1860s.
It was the nominated and assisted emigration schemes of the 1870s that encouraged and provided the money for most Irish immigrants to reach New Zealand. The New Zealand Government, dominated by English protestants, howrver, was not enthusiastic about Irish migrants. The colony in reality had little choice as it urgently required male labourers. In addition, females were required in order to balance the heavily male population. New Zealand had attracted many more male than female settlers. As Irish women were particularly prone to emigrate, their alleged undesirability was overlooked and around half of all Irish migrants were female. Protestant Irish also emigrated in substantial numbers and around one quarter of Irish settlers in New Zealand were Protestant. Once assistance was abolished, the numbers of Irish migrants fell, although those from Ulster
continued to emigrate in substantial numbers.
The New Zealand Catholic school system was founded in the mid-19th century. The growing Catholic population wanted schools which would teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Roman Catholic tradition while providing a general education to the same standard as the government-funded school system. Many Irish immigrants were dubious about the treatmentbof their children in the English run state system which had a protestant bias. New Zealand Catholics never suffered the violent behavior that occurred in the United States. Even so, local Government officials and school administrators and teachers in New Zealand were almost exclusively protestants that in most instances had little sympathy toward the Irish or their Church.
New Zealand Catholics at substantial personal cost, eventually built a school system which educated about 15 percent of the country's school population. The system was financed through the substantial sacrifice of low and middle income Irish parishioners. It was accomplished without any Governmet assistance.
The first schools were all coeducational [Dennis: accurate?] elementary schools. The secondary schools were all single sex, mostly boys' schools. The first coeducational Catholic secondary school was St Peter's in Gore which was opened in 1969. The schools were maintained with modest tuition charges and innumerable community raffles, collections, sales of rum cake, and many varied fund raising events.
As the cost of education spiraled upward in recent years, especially with the increasing need to hire secular teachers, New Zealand's Catholic Church found it increasingly difficult to finance its schools. Many schools were forced to close or amalgamate. Many of today's coeducational Catholic schools have been amalgamated from two or more older boys' and girls' schools.
The Government steadfastly refused to provide financial support for private schools, including the Catholic schools. That support which finally was approved in the 1970s, however, proved insufficient.
As a result of financial pressure, the Catholic Church decided to integrate into the state system when the Government offered private schools an arrangement allowing them to preserve their special character. (See "Integration.") Individual Catholic schools during 1978-84, worked out the integration arrangements with the Government. All New Zealand Catholic schools now operate as integrated public schools. The schools continue to show the continued participation of the many dedicated brothers and sisters as well as the continuing support of parents in many varied school activities.
The Government's integration effort guaranteed the Catholic schools the tight to retain their special character. This is the same commitment it made to private schools. The idea was that the state system would benefit from the added diversity. The Catholoic schools for their part, with Government financing, were able to retain schools that they might otherwise have to close. The special character of one Catholic school is defined by that school as:
Sacred Heart Girls' College specifically offers an education which is integrated in the Catholic Faith by prayer, worship and religious instruction. It is a Catholic school which exercises its right to live and teach the values of Jesus Christ. It is also essentially a caring school, where each person is cared for and valued as a member of its Christian community. The Staff of the College work in close liaison with the parents in striving towards its goals. The beliefs, practices and values that have already been laid down in the home are built upon in the school. Faith is an integral part of the school, with every opportunity being taken to strengthen the personal beliefs of students, leading eventually to a personal commitment in faith on their part. For this reason, and to make sure that the Special Character is upheld, an undertaking is required by parents upon enrolment of each student that their daughter participates in regular instruction and worship. The College has a Chaplain who joins the College to celebrate liturgies of Eucharist and Reconciliation.
The religious program is an important element of any Catholic school. The description of this program by various Catholic schools is presented here in the words of the different schools.
There are 190 Catholic primary schools in New Zealand and 47 high schools (more often called secondary schools or colleges). All are Integrated schools. Nine percent of all New Zealand's school children are enrolled in the Catholic school system. Approximately 65% of eligible Catholic youngsters attend our schools while in some places the number is as high as 92%. The total number of students in Catholic schools is 57,000 (1997).
New Zealand Catholic secondary schools currently consist of both single gender and coeducational schools. Initially the single gender schools were more common. Many Catholic schools, however, were forced to consolidate because of the high costs associated with running small secondary schools. The Catholic population in the larger cities was sufficent to support both a boys' and girls' schools. This was not true in the smaller towns, so the Catholic schools were forced by economic necesity to adopt a coeducational approach. For the same reason, many Catholic secondary schools incclude Years 7 and 8 while most public secondary schools, except for the areas schools, begin with Year 9.
