A Hawke’s Bay farming leader says plans to axe school bus routes in the region could end up gutting rural communities.
The Ministry of Education is ending a number of rural bus runs, and restructuring others, that take students to Napier and Hastings.
Hawke’s Bay Federated Farmers president Jim Galloway says the rural families affected are both outraged and devastated.
“Making these cuts to rural school bus routes will make it incredibly difficult for farming and rural families to send their kids to school each day.
“There’s a real risk we’ll see more and more rural families moving into town for schooling, although I’m certain our towns don’t need more people moving there.
“Getting your kids to school each day to receive a decent education is pretty bloody important.”
One community affected is Te Pōhue, about 40 minutes’ drive from Napier, where residents are scrambling to figure out what they’ll do when the bus service ends.
“Although locals successfully fought to delay the bus cuts until the end of the year, we’ve already seen one family leave the community over the issue,” Galloway says.
“That’s four kids gone, taking the local school down from 19 students to 15. If more families follow suit, we’ll see serious knock-on effects.
“Farmers will struggle to find new farm staff and people will be put off purchasing properties in rural areas. This could totally gut the community.”
In another community, Putorino, secondary school students will face an hour-long drive just to get on a bus, and the same on the way back home.
“That’s four hours a day for parents to drive to and from the bus, which makes life very, very hard if you’re trying to work or run a business,” Galloway explains.
“To add insult to injury, there’s a family up there trying to get their son into Napier Boys’ High School as a boarder next year – but it’s full.
“Some people say, ‘just home-school the kids’, but that doesn’t suit many children or parents and isn’t that easy.”
The Ministry of Education says its review of bus services in Napier and Hastings found a number of students using the services are ineligible.
This is because they’re not attending their closest school and/or they have other public transport options.
“The closest secondary school would be William Colenso College, but most of these students are going to other high schools only a few minutes down the road,” Galloway says.
“What difference does it make if they travel a few hundred metres down the road to a school they’d rather go to?”
Galloway takes issue with another Ministry rule that students in Years 1-8 must live at least 3.2km from the school, and students in Years 9-13 at least 4.8km from the school, to qualify for transport.
“That means some of these kids will have to make their own way to school by biking or walking along some very busy roads.
“Who would want their five- or six-year-old walking along State Highway 5 with no footpaths on a dark winter’s morning?
“It’s potentially very dangerous.”
Galloway says the Ministry doesn’t give communities enough notice when it makes changes to school bus routes.
“They normally give one to two terms’ notice if a route is changing, which is totally inadequate.
“You need way more time than that – at least one year’s notice – to work out how the hell you’re going to get your kids to school.
“Also, if route changes are made part-way through the year, causing students to change schools, it could really disrupt their education.”
The issue has left members of Hawke’s Bay Federated Farmers executive fuming.
“We had a meeting recently and the team were just totally wound up about this,” Galloway says.
“One of them said, ‘our communities are screwed’ – although he used less polite language than that.
“Living in the country is one thing, but not having access to education is totally unacceptable.”
Galloway hopes it’s not too late for the Ministry of Education to change its mind about axing the bus runs.
“Federated Farmers are working on getting the Ministry to be much fairer about any changes and to spend more time listening to affected communities.
“I believe the Ministry needs to review its criteria for who’s eligible for transport, and they need to give communities a lot more notice if they do make changes.
“Here’s hoping they listen to reason,” Galloway says.
Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.
