Auckland Muslim school Al-Madinah among those hoping to become charter schools

RNZ News

6 hours ago

Charter status would help Al-Madinah expend and open new campuses.
Photo:
Supplied / Google Maps
Just two state or state-integrated schools have applied to become charter schools next year.
One of the schools was Auckland Muslim school Al-Madinah, which said charter status would help it expand, and open new campuses on Auckland's North Shore and in Christchurch.
It also said it would provide more flexibility around its curriculum and opening hours, which could be altered to accommodate events like Ramadan.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour had talked up the likelihood some state-sector schools would want to switch.
The first seven charters that
opened this year
were all new entities serving distinct or niche student groups.
The most likely candidates for conversion were former charter schools forced to become state-integrated or special-character schools, after a change in government in 2017.
State-integrated schools were the next logical candidates, because they had a special character, often religious, that set them apart from regular state schools and, like charters, their property was owned by a third party, such as a church or a trust.
Converting a regular state school would be a coup for the programme and RNZ was aware of one in the early stages of considering an application.
Meanwhile, Al-Madinah School principal Asin Ali told RNZ charter status would make it much easier for the school to expand.
He said the school had a wait-list of 1500 students and was limited to a maximum roll of about 550, agreed with the Education Ministry.
Ali said those restrictions would be removed if the school became a charter, allowing its Māngere campus to take about 700 students, based on Auckland City Council regulations.
In addition, the school's sponsor wanted to open a new campus in Auckland's Blockhouse Bay that could take about 400-500 students and another school in Christchurch next year.
Ali said that could be done with a single principal and sponsor under charter school rules, instead of requiring new principals for each school.
He said integrated status had been perfect for teaching religion and culture, but it also meant the maximum roll was capped and could not increase, unless the school first spent a lot of money on property.
"With the charter school system, there's no real cap, except for what I understand the council allows you, so you can build as you are growing," he said.
The Māngere-based school opened in 1992 and became a state-integrated school in 1996. Education Ministry figures showed it had 592 students last year.
The Charter School Agency said it had received six expressions of interest and two applications from schools wanting to convert to charter schools by Friday's deadline.
It said, in the first application round last year, it received four applications from state or state-integrated schools wanting to convert.
The agency said state and state-integrated schools could submit an expression of interest at any time, but those wanting to convert next year faced a 16 June deadline, with an 8 October deadline for applications.
Seymour recently told the Education and Workforce Committee "a number" of state schools were working on conversion to charter status.
"We're not identifying those at this point, but there's going to be quite a few, and I think people are going to be very, very impressed by what they see," he said.
"As I understand it, the conversions are going very well. Good community support, good staff support... I think a few people are going to be surprised by some of the people doing the converting."
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