Pestle and Porter Analysis of a Rual Primary School

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Business strategy can be defined as the plan to achieve goals and objectives of any business or organisation. This paper explains the PESTLE and PORTER analysis tool which are used in organisation planning and strategy building. Each tool has been exemplified by Te Mahia School in a bid to identify the opportunities and restrictions or strengths and weakness Te Mahia school should take into consideration when planning ahead to reach their vision, values and their achievement expectations as stipulated by The Education Review Office (ERO).

Te Mahia School is small rural mainstream primary school located on Mahia Peninsula. It is one of two Primary schools in the direct vicinity. It is owned and funded by the government. They teach the national curriculum and are required to meet National Standards in literacy and numeracy (New Zealand Immigration, 2017).

Te Mahia accommodates 44 students from Years 1 to 8. Of the 44 students, 42 identify as Māori and it is classified as a Decile 1 school (Educational Review Office, 2017). Decile 1 schools are organisations who require the most funding to help students overcome the learning barriers they are potentially subjected to because they live in lower socio-economic communities, the lowest 10% of all New Zealand schools (Education.govt.nz, 2016).

The number of pupils affects the amount of funding provided for teaching staff. Currently Te Mahia school have 2 fulltime teachers and two part-time teacher aids (Personal Information).

The vision defined by the school for all children are to 'build a stronger future together through lifelong learning' and 'to be the best we can be'. The values of the organisation which were developed by the staff and community include; kaitiakitanga (caring for the environment), manaakitanga (caring/ respect), whanaungatanga (relationships/ family), te maungateatanga (excellence/top of the highest peak) and kanorau (diversity).  

Since the last ERO report in 2014 the student achievement in writing and mathematics has improved though this improvement is not adequate, as half of the student’s over-all achievements are not “at” or “above” the National Standard. The reading achievement has remained unchanged during the reporting period and along with writing has been identified as the most urgent area for improvement (Educational Review Office, 2017).

The nature of transformation in any era is as true for education today as technology advances and economic productivity has been in the 21st century. However, knowing that such transformation is inevitable and being prepared to embrace the change required, are two different things. How does one small primary school plan ahead to make its vision and values a reality? How does it dramatically transform conditions to effectively accelerate and sustain learning achievements, under the thumb of the government, isolated in the country with bare minimum financial support? Like any other business or corporation; with carefully considered in-depth cohesive analysis of the macro and micro environmental factors.

The major external and therefore uncontrollable factors that influence performance and planning strategies can be distinguished in PESTLE, an acronym that denotes P for Political, E for Economic, S for Social, T for Technological, L for Legal and E for Environmental. It is an analytical tool used to form a much more comprehensive bird’s eye view of the organisation’s whole environment, from many different angles (Business Dictionary, 2017). For this purpose, Table 1.1 tracks the current and potential influences in the education environment. It outlines the risks Te Mahia school currently encounters and those that may become a reality. Identifying these factors allows Te Mahia School the ability to adapt and the foresight to prepare for possible changes in the external influences.

The table identifies the factors which need to be addressed and those that do not. As a state funded school, it is not surprising the political factors are many. Looking closer we can see a repetition of similar concerns between the Political, Economic and Social influences, these being; Teacher support and development, Te Reo Maori compliance and Enrolment numbers. These should be considered the most important external factors for Te Mahia school to take into consideration when planning strategically.