The problem of Picot: A comparative critique

In July, 1987, the Taskforce to Review Education Administration in New Zealand was established. The Taskforce report, Administering for Excellence (henceforth the Picot Report), was submitted in April, 1988. The thesis of this paper is that the needs of education in New Zealand would have been better served had the Taskforce adopted a comparative and problem-solving approach, along the lines proposed by Brian Holmes. It must be said immediately that some of the recommendations are so close to similar recommendations made by the 1986 Ministry Structures Project Team in Victoria, Australia, that it is quite possible overseas data were in fact considered. The contention of the comparativisit is that such matters be considered explicitly, and within a theoretical framework that allows for sound predictions based on both local and overseas analyses.