Monday, May 01, 2006

Overbearing bureaucracy

The government is increasingly interfering with the early child education area. Here Early Childhood Council CE, Sue Thorn gives an example of just how stupid their rules can be.

"I know of one centre owner who has spent a large amount of money on laptops for which he has developed software programmes ... He has fitted out a van so these can be taken to all his centres," Thorne said.

"The ministry has decided that the children walking out to the van is a field trip, each time the children visit the van, (so) the centres need written permission from every parent.

"If this sort of control is happening now, we are really concerned about the future when so many more of these nonsense rules are imposed."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The article reminds me of the situation my sister found herself in. She went to the school office to organise for a copy of her daughter's school report to be sent out to her after she had split with her ex. The office had a list of people for whom they were not to deal with - and my sister found that she was on that list because her ex. had contacted the school and told them that she was a "trouble maker" - and further, he had gone on to take her off the emergency contact register. He had not provided any evidence or any court orders for his claims (there were none!)

The school refused to listen to reason, and it took a letter from my sister's lawyer (plus costs incurred) to get her reinstated on the contacts list and get school reports sent out to her. If this type of thing is becoming more common, then schools should be trained in legal rights of guardians (to use the politically correct term for parents) caregivers. Needing some evidence before they take take actions to limit the rights of parents might be a good start.