Between Two Islands: Experimenting with Educational Efficiency in New Zealand Junior High and Intermediate Schools

Abstract

This chapter examines the concept of ‘educational efficiency’ with particular reference to the historical origins and subsequent development of junior high and intermediate schools in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Although this concept has been a central feature of educational policy and practice for decades, its historical and institutional context has been all but ignored by educationists. Designed ostensibly to ‘bridge the gap’ between the primary and post-primary schools by offering specialist courses aligned to the perceived educational and vocational needs of young adolescents, the junior high and intermediate schools rapidly became embroiled in the ‘early specialisation’ versus ‘exploration of aptitudes’ debate. Seeking guidance and direction from successive Directors and Ministers of Education, these schools found neither a clear nor consistent educational philosophy to justify their existence. With the schools left to develop in their own ways, hoping somehow that a role would be found for them, politicians became obsessed with extracting greater efficiency from all institutions within the nation’s schooling system. However, with the restructuring of New Zealand education at a time when school enrolments were declining and with more primary schools seeking approval to recapitate, the intermediate school sector has been forced to reassess both its place and viability in the education system.