Leading from the front issuu

AN EDUCATIONAL ADVEN-
TURE — THE COLLEGE OPENS
When the Hawke’s Bay Community College opened in
February 1975 it was a product of its times. The preceding
decade was one of radical social and educational
change driven by a number of influential forces:
• movement education swept the world
• UNESCO focused globally on promoting education
methods that would meet the needs of all adults
• and at home, the Kirk/Rowling Labour Government
(1972 — 75) had committed itself in its election
manifesto to expand community-based learning
The Labour Government fulfilled this commitment by
implementing a package of innovative social and educational
policies which aligned closely with UNESCO’s call
to action. Among them, a new kind of tertiary institution
— the community college; an institution “designed to
meet continuing education needs in provincial centres
particularly, that would incorporate adult and community
education on an equal footing with vocational education,
and set out to achieve increased representation
from groups traditionally under-represented in postschool
education.”
At the opening, Dr John Harré, the college’s first director,
spoke of his vision: He saw the college as “an
opportunity to put into practice his beliefs about community
development and the total involvement of the
adult population in the educational process”. He saw
the college as “an alternative type of tertiary institution
that would ignore the traditional boundaries…….to be
a place for people irrespective of their social, ethnic or
educational background”. Later, in an interview with the
Daily Telegraph he is quoted as saying, “We should have
people who are still at school, in mid-career and retired,
to break down the idea that education is only study in
a classroom rewarded with a certificate. I want to push
out into the community, not suck everyone up into a set
of buildings. Many of the drop-outs from education left
because they could not get on within a formal structure.
The last thing I want to do is impose yet another formal
structure on them”.
Like minds but different, Pat and John Harré on social justice
safari together; John Wise captions his cartoon: “The early
days were difficult at times”.
FROM VISION
TO REALITY
Wow! It’s easy to understand why Pat was attracted
to the idea of such an institution. His years of personal
commitment to the ‘forgotten people’ had found
a powerful ally, and, quite properly, he was quick to
see and pursue the possibility of on-the-ground support
for his community development work.
Pat was appointed to the College’s first (Interim)
Council, 1975-77 and I have no doubt that, over and
beyond this period, his pragmatic “foot-soldier” approach
and his extensive community networks inspired
the college council to support the implementation
of (then) innovative community development
processes.
No pressure! In 1976 there were just four full-time
community education staff. Unhelpfully, the Department
of Education was insisting (quite inappropriately),
on a minimum number of registered, fee-paying
students in each class so that we could generate
enough “student-hours” to get our funding. And lots
of people were upset because they wanted a university
— and it wasn’t even a polytechnic! “And why
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Hawke’s Bay Community College – it worked! So what happened?