Commuting vs Proximity: Children Snubbing Local Schools For 'Better' Education

In search of receiving a better education, more and more students from different areas in New Zealand are now taking the time and giving more effort to travel and commute going to schools outside their respective zones.

Currently, more than 80,000 students commute to a school they consider better than those found in their zone of residence, reports online news website Stuff.co.nz. This growing trend of snubbing nearby schools in search of "better" schools is warning academics of an impending "education apartheid."

New Zealand has a zoning system for schools that attempts to balance the number of students enrolled in a certain school in a certain territory. It aims to avoid overcrowding and hopes to encourage students to go to "local" schools -- once found in their vicinity.

While the idea of zoning sound like a good idea, trying to do it in reality is something that's hard to do. For example, some parents believe that it's their right to choose a school for their child, one they think will be the best. However, because of too much red tape across zones, some parents would break the system by getting a psychologist to approve of a school switch or cheat by buying a spot at the out-of-zone ballot (that chooses who will be accepted in a school), among others.

Some would even lie about their address in the hopes of getting their child accepted in a "good" school or even have their child baptized so that he/she can enter a high decile Catholic school. "The ballot was supposed to equal things out," said retired Waikato teacher Norman Austin, "but parents who want to send their kids out-of-zone can either save and skimp to buy in-zone or enter into the ballot."

For those who are financially challenged, the issue of getting a better education through out-of-zone schooling can be very hard. Felix Simon, a student who commutes to his school in Frankfurt, Germany, sums it up in a blog entry.

"Many of my friends who study in Frankfurt, including myself, live at home and commute into Frankfurt every day. It's not the best option if you want to enjoy student life to the fullest, and it can make studying unnecessarily complicated; but for many, it is either the only option (especially if they cannot afford moving to another city) or the choice that does not see them with a huge debt at the end of their studies. Especially if you know that you definitely want to study in Frankfurt, as I did, staying at home is an option worth considering," said Simon.