Abuse in Care: Crown's education watchdog says its reports can only go so far

Friday, 19 August 2022

Education Review Office boss Nicholas Pole takes the stand at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care State Institutional responses.

The Crown’s watchdog, charged with auditing educational institutions, says its recommendations for change are just that, recommendations.

Leaders of the Education Review Office (ERO) took the stand on the fifth day of the Royal Commission’s Abuse in Care inquiry - Institutional Response hearing, acknowledging how the education system had caused harm for children, with an emphasis on Māori, Pasifika, Deaf, and disabled students.

ERO took over regulatory reviews of state and private educational institutions from the Ministry of Education 1989, 10 years before the inquiry’s cutoff date.

Across the course of earlier hearings, the inquiry heard from survivors about how the abuse, racism, and cultural neglect they experienced in educational settings negatively impacted their experience of school.

Commissioners Dr Andrew Erueti and Julia Steenson listen closely to the response of the Education Review Office.

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This then led to behaviour such as truancy, petty crimes, gang involvement and ultimately, for many, that began their pathways into the care system.

ERO’s chief executive Nicholas Pole said he had not watched the hearings that applied to his agency, but had received feedback and supported the royal commission’s work of “opening the door on atrocities which for too long have been kept hidden”.

“I’m deeply distressed and saddened by what witnesses who have presented to this commission have told you about the abuse they have suffered from those working in or connected in education,” he said.

“This harm has come from those who have exploited their positions and failed in their duty and their moral and professional obligations to protect. It cannot be condoned today.”

From left, Education Review Office officials Lynda Pura-Watson, Jane Lee and Nicholas Pole, Chief Executive are questioned by Commission counsel Tania Sharkey.

While there have been improvements in identifying and reporting issues within schools, Pole acknowledged there was still work to be done to support schools to assist children’s health, welfare and achievement.

Māori, Pasifika, Deaf and disabled communities continue to be underserved by schools, Pole said.

He also revealed only 10% of schools were fulfilling their obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi to the best of their ability.

Pole said it was ERO’s responsibility to be the eyes and ears for the minster of education and to report any concerns to ensure all school children were cared for.

However, the commission’s counsel Tania Sharkey questioned how thorough ERO was in uncovering issues in schools and holding them to account.

From 1995 to 2009, ERO filed several reports to the Ministry of Education and raised concerns directly with the minister of education that focused on bullying and violence at a school which is still operating today, Sharkey said.

But little to no changes were made at the school, its name redacted for privacy reasons, and harm continued to be inflicted upon students because the school’s board of trustees did not want to take on ERO’s recommendations.

“You have an ongoing issue because of the issues that are going on between Ministry of Education, ERO and the school, [but] the children are still there going through what is happening in that school,” Sharkey said.

“So in ERO’s situation, there isn't more you can do?”

“Not in terms of our existing powers,” Pole said.

“We do not have powers to direct or enforce compliance or actions by individual entities. Where we identify concerns, our obligation is to report and to raise them with the appropriate entity.”

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Pole said when the system worked, it worked well, but many boards have a lack of understanding of their responsibilities to care for tamariki Māori, Pasifika, Deaf and disabled, and lack capacity to uphold their responsibilities, or struggle to stand up against senior leadership in schools.

School boards wield a great deal of power, Pole said. If the board was rocky, then that rippled through the rest of the school and ultimately put children in poorer positions to succeed.

“We find that generally, the layers and the conditions of the schools are equally weak,” he said.

“And often it’s a manifestation of the quality of teaching, the quality of leadership, the quality of governance, practices and systems in the school and the lack of collective teacher efficacy where teachers are working together around making sure every single learner is successful.”

The hearing continues.