Wellington Girls' College students set up a makeshift classroom on Parliament grounds as a protest against the school having to close for two days over quake-prone buildings. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Helyer-Donaldson
The Education Minister has slammed her ministry for "very poor communication" over the situation with a teaching block at Wellington Girls' College.
The school learnt late in April that its biggest teaching building, Brook Block, was structurally weak on top and lacked earthquake resilience.
Until prefabs were up and running, likely to be mid-September, each year group would have between two and five days at home.
Students set set up a makeshift classroom on Parliament grounds in protest on Wednesday.
Erica Stanford told Morning Report the education ministry's handling of this was "just another example of very poor communication".
"Its always concerning when the Ministry of Education don't communicate well, certainly in situations like this."
"My portfolio now and we're under new management and I've made my expectations very crystal clear that we will have good and timely information and we will be open and transparent."
Stanford said she believed the latest report had been share quickly with the school and the ministry was now working "at pace" to help find a solution.
Initially prefab classrooms would be brought in to allow all students back to school, a long-term solution would be decided on by 26 August, she said.
"I've told the Ministry my expectations are that we move at pace on this and make sure that learning is disrupted for only a minimal amount of time."
School principal Julia Davidson said the students were "fantastic" with their protest at Parliament.
She told Morning Report the students wanted to do something positive and make their point.
"I think they were fantastic.
"I think they had a really nice day, the weather helped of course, but they actually did their work down there, there were lots of teachers down there helping them."
For the students studying from home it was a lot different than during Covid-19 lockdowns, Davidson said.
"It's like normal day, but you're just at home in front of your computer... much more structured than lock down, quite different."
