Te Pūkenga disestablishment 'will not be completely equitable'
A 'federation' of polytechs may be needed after the dissolution of Te Pūkenga. File photo.
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Polytechnics are unlikely to emerge from Te Pūkenga with the savings or debt they took into the mega-institute.
Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds today told the Education and Workforce Select Committee the government was working on how to re-establish polytechnics that were subsumed by Te Pūkenga at the end of 2022.
"There are some that went in with very high debts, some that went in with very high reserves. The disestablishment will not be completely equitable and that, unfortunately, needs to occur because we cannot stand up new entities that are going to be insolvent," she told the committee.
Simmonds confirmed that polytechnics that were "not very solvent" would be more likely to be merged with another institute or placed into a federation of polytechnics.
"There are still decisions to be made around that, but where there are some that there isn't a pathway, then obviously mergers are an option, but also support by being able to go into the federation," she said.
Simmonds said a federation model was suggested when the previous government was considering submissions that led to the creation of Te Pūkenga and it had been wrong to ignore those submissions.
"I think where Te Pūkenga went wrong was that classic mistake of form before function, and if the functions that would benefit from being centralised had been looked at, Te Pūkenga probably wouldn't have been the form that eventuated and a federation model might have been," she said.
Simmonds told the committee Te Pūkenga's financial situation had improved, but only because it had shed many of the centralised functions it was set up to provide.
She said the $20 million the government had set aside to ensure the continuation of strategically important vocational education might not be enough.
She said it could be used to protect courses in areas with high levels of youth unemployment, and courses related to significant industries such as agriculture.
The committee was hearing submissions and evidence on the Education and Training (Vocational Education and Training System) Amendment Bill which would disestablish Te Pūkenga at the end of 2026.
The bill would also allow the re-establishment of individual polytechnics and the creation of a federation of polytechnics led by an "anchor" institute.
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