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Three years of consultation on the education needs of Te Whanau a Apanui has resulted in the merging of three schools in the western East Cape into one.
Raukokore School, Te Kura o Omaio, and Te Whanau-a-Apanui Area School will close at the start of the next school year and Year 1 to 13 schooling in the area will be provided by a new school on the current Te Whanau-a-Apanui site.
Education Minister Hekia Parata says the reorganisation will provide better educational outcomes for students.
She says while the Raukokore community wanted to retain its school, it would not have been able to provide the same sustainable, quality education.
Ms Parata says the area’s declining population meant fewer educational opportunities for the children and young people in the area.
Shed says the change will provide stronger governance, refreshed leadership and teaching, better supported teaching staff, and enhanced opportunities for student learning.
Te Kaha Community School, as it will be initially known, will work with the other three schools in Te Whanau-a-Apanui’s education network under the new Community of Schools framework to develop an Apanui curriculum.
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