Photo: RNZ/ Nick Monro
A multi-million-dollar contract for advising school boards and running board elections is being contested for what is understood to be the first time.
The School Boards Association has been doing the work under contract to the Education Ministry since its inception in 1989 as the School Trustees Association and told RNZ its current contract dated from 2014.
Read more:
However, the Education Ministry put the work up for tender and RNZ understood it had narrowed the possible bids to two options, one of them being the association and the other PwC.
PwC said it did not comment on procurement processes but said it "carries out a broad range of work across the education sector".
"This includes providing specialist expertise for private and public sector clients in areas such as employment relations, assurance, legal, internal audit, real estate and consultancy," it said.
The Education Ministry said in a statement: "The Ministry wants to ensure that school boards and schools receive the right level of support, and that the services are delivered in a way that works for them. So that we can achieve the best outcomes for schools, we are undertaking a procurement process."
Education insiders said a change of contract holder would be a significant shift for the school sector.
They said the association had long-standing relationships with other organisations such as teacher unions and years of experience training board members and organising board elections.
However, they said the board's contract with the ministry focused the organisation on providing services to boards, rather than acting as a publicly outspoken advocate for schools.
One insider said the association tended to "take the government line" on issues and and was not regarded as fully independent of the Education Ministry, an allegation the association rejected.
The association said in a statement its commercial arrangement with the ministry was managed by its operational arm.
"Our contract-for-service arrangement with the Ministry of Education in no way compromises our position as the independent voice of school boards in Aotearoa. Our advocacy, led by the President, is informed through regular surveys of our members, in addition to direct engagement with them on a local level through our 11 regional executive committees, and we freely adopt the policy positions voted for by our members at our Annual General Meeting," it said.
The association said it was "steadfastly independent" in representing its members and regularly made submissions to government on their behalf.
The association's services included governance and employment advice through an advisory centre and regional staff, training for school board members, and administration of the Education Ministry's emergency staffing scheme to provide last resort cover for schools.
The association was set up in 1989 as the School Trustees Association following the Tomorrow's Schools reforms that created the system of self-managing schools each governed by their own board of trustees.
The association said about 85 percent of state and state-integrated schools were members.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
