Neville Lambert

A popular NZEI president, Neville Lambert also proved prescient as to the issues that would face children and families, and therefore educators, as a result of the liberalisations of the 1980s and early 90s.

He died in office, on 4 July 1993, aged 53, having completed nearly two terms. A sixth-generation Southlander from Invercargill, he was often described as a “gentle giant”. His adept leadership skills were sorely needed in the difficult days of the early 1990s. Political and social changes deeply affected children and families at the time and he spoke out against them publicly: “Social policies have been reduced to nothing more than an economic tool and economic policy is no longer designed to serve the needs of all New Zealanders.

“Parent unemployment, poor housing, overcrowding and frequent changes in search of work or accommodation, all have an adverse affect on the child’s ability to take full advantage of what school offers.”

He was an articulate debater, who did not hesitate to challenge the government on its plans for education, which included the bulk-funding of schools.

In 1991, he replied to a speech to Annual Meeting from then Associate Education Minister Roger McLay, by saying, “One of your justifications for bulk funding today was the complex staffing situation. We are fully prepared to prosecute that with you and to present with a staffing deal for primary schools that is simple, clear and transparent. If that’s the problem, we are more than happy to assist you with the solution.”

He continued to speak out against bulk-funding – “how ludicrous it is … to replace one problem with a worse one”. By the end of the decade bulk-funding had been defeated.

Despite having very little knowledge of Maoritanga, he was also instrumental in the setting up of the Miro Maori strands of NZEI, including Aronui Tomua, and in persuading those who had reservations to embrace moves toward NZEI becoming a bicultural organisation.

According to then principal Hera Johns, “Neville showed leadership which gained the respect and love of the Maori people... His background did not lend him initially to be supportive of Maori issues. But once cultural significance of issues were explained to him, nine out of ten times, he would accept them.”

Lambert’s work has been remembered in the Neville Lambert Oral Archive, which collected recordings of practitioners to trace a history of the sector through the twentieth century. The recordings are now held in the National Library.