Rangitikei College – can the tide be turned?

Rangitikei College provides free High School education with transport, for 11 contributing Primary Schools surrounding the township of Marton. Disappointingly, three 45 seater buses with limited standing room only, plus many private cars, pay to transport their children to larger neighbouring Secondary Schools in Wanganui, Feilding and Palmerston North. Many small rural towns may be suffering the same fate, and Principals are quick to site the blame on such causes as glossy marketing, perception problems that ‘bigger is better’, along with perceptions from the Community (refer article ‘Dominion Post, 23 April 2003). I decided to conduct my survey to find out what influenced Marton parents’ choices when it came to selecting a High School.