14: Observations on the Imposition of New Public Management in the New Zealand State Education System

Re-elected in 1987, the fourth Labour government (1984–1990) embarked on a program of ‘dramatic’ and ‘radical’ change within the administration of New Zealand’s state education system (Codd, 1990; Macpherson, 1989). Indeed, David Lange, then Prime Minister and Minister of Education, had cause to note that the reforms were going to provide “… the most thoroughgoing change to the administration of education in our history” (Ministry of Education, 1988: 1). The 1989 reforms stem from the report of the Taskforce to Review Education Administration (Picot Report) and the subsequent government white paper, Tomorrow’s Schools, which adopted almost in their entirety the recommendations of the taskforce. The reforms were primarily devolutionary in nature with an emphasis on governance, administration and management of education. In brief, the reforms abolished the intermediary stages of education administration, radically reduced and restructured the central agency and identified individual schools as “… the basic building block of education administration” (Ministry of Education, 1988: 1). Elected Boards of Trustees¹ were responsible for the governance of individual schools and became the legal employers of the school staff. As chief executives, principals were charged with day-to-day management. The school charter provided a link between national and local policies and operations and established the accountability of the Boards of Trustees to the state for the delivery of educational outputs.² A Review and Audit agency (subsequently known as the Education Review Office) was established to monitor the performance of each school. Schools were to be direct resourced (bulk funded) through the payment of two grants, one for operational expenditure and the second for teacher salaries.³