Across New Zealand, schools are declaring that they will “give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
Many parents assume this means teaching New Zealand history or acknowledging Māori culture. In reality, in modern policy language, it means something far more structural.
To “give effect” to Te Tiriti generally means embedding Treaty principles into governance, leadership, and decision-making. It often involves redefining power-sharing arrangements, treating Māori as governance partners, and redesigning institutional systems around Treaty-based frameworks.
This is not merely education.
It is a constitutional and governance shift.
The idea of “partnership” is modern — not original
New Zealand did not operate as a partnership state for most of its history.
The modern concepts of “partnership”, “principles of the Treaty,” and co-governance emerged largely in the 1980s through court decisions and Waitangi Tribunal reports. These ideas are not written into the original 1840 texts.
What is happening now is not preservation of an old system.
It is the adoption of a modern constitutional interpretation that remains highly contested within public debate.
Zoning denies parents real choice
This is the crucial issue.
School ZONING removes parental choice.
Families are legally compelled to send their children to their zoned state school, unless they can afford private or integrated alternatives.
In practice, parents now face only four options:
Accept their ZONED co-governance state school
Pay for private schooling
Accept an integrated faith-based school
Or home schooling.
That is not freedom.
That is coercion through zoning.
If schools are fundamentally diverging in governance model, worldview, and constitutional philosophy, then zoning must not be used to trap families into schools they did not choose.
Parents must be emancipated from zoning where philosophical divergence exists.
Governance and consultation problems
Many Boards of Trustees have not held public meetings since the 4th November 2025 government announcement of law change, yet declarations have already been issued.
This raises serious questions:
Were full board meetings held?
Were votes taken?
Were parent representatives consulted?
Were families asked their views?
There appears to be no evidence of meaningful community consultation before these commitments were made.
Public schools do not belong to administrators.
They belong to families and the public.
Structural failures inside Boards of Trustees
Boards depend almost entirely on unpaid parent volunteers.
Many schools struggle to attract candidates.
Many elections are uncontested.
Some boards cannot fill positions at all.
Where parent governance is weak, real authority naturally shifts to those who are:
Paid
Trained
And present inside the system every day
This means professional education staff increasingly shape governance direction.
This is not a criticism of principals and teachers.
It is a structural design flaw.
Barriers to access and transparency
In many schools there is:
No public phone contact for the Board
No direct public email address
No transparent route to communicate directly with trustees
Parents are forced to funnel concerns through school offices.
There is no assurance concerns reach elected trustees.
That is not democratic governance.
Where real power now sits
The speed with which more than a thousand schools issued these declarations matters.
It suggests decisions were driven administratively, not democratically.
When constitutional-level statements can be issued without visible parental mandate, the governance model no longer matches what parents were told it was.
This is the real issue.
Reform is necessary
If schools are adopting divergent constitutional and governance models, then:
Parents must be clearly informed
Zoning must not be used to trap families
Governance must be transparent
Community consent must be real
Either parent trustees must be paid and professionalised, or the governance model must be redesigned completely.
Public education cannot function long-term without legitimacy.
Parents deserve transparency.
Parents deserve choice.
Parents deserve an education system that does not coerce them through zoning.
Judy Gill BSc, DipTchg, is a parent, former teacher, and a staunch advocate for secular education.
7 comments:
The Left is all about control - in all domains - with privilege reserved for a favoured few. This is what you get when you vote for the Left. Always was that way - always will be.
Strict zoning plus avoidance of streaming creates ghettos as parents flee and avod areas with large low acheiver attendance.
No constitutional shift, no co-governance takeover. School boards aren't handing over control to iwi; they're just consulting locals like any decent community does. Over 1000 schools recommitted voluntarily because it works—boosts engagement, lifts achievement for all kids, Māori included. Your "modern partnership" whine ignores that the Treaty promised protection of taonga and rangatiratanga from day one, which the Crown butchered until now.
NZ wasn't a "partnership state" historically? Yeah, because the Crown ignored the deal and colonized anyway. Today's schools honouring it aren't adopting a "contested interpretation"—they're making good on 1840 promises with practical stuff like local histories and inclusive classrooms that benefit every tamariki. Cry harder; this is equity, not a Māori coup. Facts over fearmongering.
Giving effect to the treaty is necessarily vague as is tikanga. Policies are announced with similar words for universities as for kindies. But these geniuses writing policies think one puts in a comma at a 'pause'--was even a clue in a Listener crossword! That's just grammatically moronic, as are most things Education-wise in NZ.
So glad I do not have children!
Anonymous at 6.47, do read Judy's text - this time carefully. Clearly parents could not have been consulted, given the time-frame. Judy has spelled out the current situation concerning teacher unions - and some - but please God not all - teachers ( of whom I was once one)I am so grateful for the intelligence and clear thinking of Erica Stanford, but , my word, she has her work cut out, as I know you are by no means alone in your shallow irrational attitude.
moi aussi....
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