Students Pushed Into Hallway As New Zealand School Struggles To Collect

Students in a certain part of New Zealand, Whangarei may have to learn in a hallway or refused entry to particular subjects if their parents do not pay compulsory course fees. Whangarei Boys High School headmaster Al Kirk alleges about $10,000 is owed from last year.

Unlike donations to the school that are on a voluntary basis, course fees are mandatory for subjects with considerable take-home items, like tools for technology or photography. The school’s plan of action is to single out students who have not yet paid, teaching them in a hall until the debt is settled.

It is no surprise that the plan has been met with condemnation from the New Zealand Education Ministry, but headmaster Kirk says that parents who are “really” not have the money to pay fees can talk to the school about payment options, and after all, a budget group is available to give parents advice.

But Mr. Kirk thinks that the issue comes from parents who are refusing to pay because they think education should be free of charge- high school education has not been free since the 1960s. The school utilized the same plot in 2008 and 90 to 98 percent of parents paid immediately, according to Kirk.

Obviously, this plan has its nay-sayers. “The fact that this school would single out students who have nothing to do with their parent’s money, it’s unthinkable” says Michael J Koopmans, education expert.

Local critics have made a point to say that there are many ways to collect the legitimate charges: re-payment plans, or as a last resort, a third party debt collection agency could deal with the parents who won’t pay. Headmaster Kirk alleges that it wouldn’t be cost efficient to use a debt collection agency.

This is an issue for other schools in the area as well. One local school is thinking about not allowing a student to take a course that their parents cannot pay for. “It’s a huge problem that has to be carefully and critically addressed,” says Michael J Koopmans. “We don’t do that lightly.

Mallory Megan works for a debt collection company. She also composes articles on business, finance, consumer spending and collection agencies. This article, Students Pushed Into Hallway As New Zealand School Struggles To Collect is available for free reprint.

AZLoans.info:

Internal War Loans of Belligerent Countries, Also Consolidation Loan of Spain and Mobilization Loans of Switzerland and HollandPublisher: New York, The National city company Publication date: 1918 Subjects: World War, 1914-1918 Debts, Public Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.