Education – Is It A political football?
Is NZ’s education system doing well
and is it well respected by overseas educationalists, or is it just OK, in the doldrums, or maybe
even woefully inadequate? What do you think?
At last week’s international conference in Wellington chaired by our
Minister of Education Hekia Parata, the high-powered quests clearly had their
thoughts. (See also the links at the end)
Here’s a
quote that as you as parents and me as a grandparent may find reassuring – it
appears that the overseas experts say your child and nephews and nieces seem to
be getting a great education in a well performing, highly respected school
system.
“An international summit on the teaching profession has opened in
Wellington with high praise for New Zealand.
Nearly
400 education ministers and teacher representatives from around the world are
attending the event.
The
head of the OECD's international testing programme, Andreas Schleicher, told
delegates New Zealand has one of the most impressive education systems in the
world.
The
United States secretary for education, Arne Duncan, told Radio Zealand News he is looking
forward to learning more about this country's education system, particularly
its early childhood education arrangements.
The
Government is hosting the summit, which started on Friday, for Education
International, the global federation of teacher unions.
Education
Minister Hekia Parata says the summit will highlight the strengths in New
Zealand's education system.
Ms
Parata says some of the nations attending have already expressed interest in
New Zealand's education system.
She
says the summit will also be an opportunity for New Zealand to learn from other
countries”
However, is
there a perception problem showing an incongruity with what parents have
previously been told? As noted in the
Dominion… “The
Government attack on public education is co-ordinated, deliberate and sustained
over several fronts.” www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/7148555/Education-wars-will-intensify-with-charter-schools
Earlier statements by our Minister of Education have stated
that schools are failing children, possibly because all children don’t achieve
the “mythical” National Standards and
teachers are not doing well enough. She claims we have been slipping for more
than the last decade.
“Education Minister Hekia Parata says New Zealand's
achievement ranking internationally has been gradually declining since the
early 2000s.” www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/9875301/Protest-unites-teachers
This was the
rationalisation given for pouring money into private schools and setting up
charter schools.
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It appears that the appointments to these
rolls will likely be based on the school’s National Standards data. It was
announced that staff from “successful” schools will be released 2 days a week
from their schools or classes to work with other schools, and an appointed
principal will be released 2 days a week to oversee 9 other schools. Is there a problem with the ‘consultation’
around these changes? Are they being imposed without adequate consultation? Are you, as a parent, aware of possible
implications such as how our parent community will feel, and how children will
be affected, if their child’s teacher disappears 2 days every week. Or what
will be the consequence for parents if the principal no longer focused on their
school but on a large number of other schools. Is it only have teachers been
cut out of proper consultation on these changes, but also our BOTs who represent
your interests as parents?
What is
assured is that the issues around current changes won’t go away and do need
further discussion if they are to benefit your child. My hope, and the hope of the 100 or so
colleagues I met with last Thursday, is that Education won’t continue to be
used as a political football and that the changes won’t have the worrying
adverse effects on your child and the children in our schools throughout New
Zealand that I fear they will.
More information available
from www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/240110/us-educator-interested-in-nz-initiatives
Is Education a Political Football?
It is beneficial for all parents to be aware of trends and happenings in the education sector that will affect their child's time at school. The following article about a major international educational conference being hosted just 50 km from here (28/3/14) may be helpful in thinking about NZ's educational direction and how political education has become.
Source: www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/240110/educators-keen-to-learn-from-summit
An event billed as the World Cup of Education kicked off in Wellington on Friday, with strong warnings against school testing and a call for more enthusiastic support for New Zealand's education system.
The International Summit on the Teaching Profession at Te Papa has attracted nearly 400 education ministers, union representatives, teachers and principals from 25 nations.
US Secretary for Education Arne Duncan (standing in centre) watches as a waiata is performed.
Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen
The summit is focused on ways of improving education and has been hosted in New Zealand for the OECD and the global federation of teacher unions, Education International.
The most important VIP is the American Secretary for Education, Arne Duncan. The United States does not perform as well as some other countries in international tests, and Mr Duncan told Radio New Zealand he is not here to tell everyone else what the solutions are.
"We come here with a real sense of humility and want to learn. There's so much fantastic work going on here in New Zealand and across the globe, it's a chance for us not to come and say here are all the things we're doing right, but here are things we want to get a lot better at that can learn from folks from here and some of the other countries."
Mr Duncan said the New Zealand initiatives he is interested in learning more about include our early childhood education system and the way our schools use IT.
The OECD's deputy director for education and skills, Andreas Schleicher, had high praise for New Zealand, telling the summit on Friday that it has an excellent education system which is the best in the world at reflecting the diversity of its population.
Education Minister Hekia Parata also spoke at the event, urging New Zealanders to start backing and celebrating the education system like they back sports teams.
"We're motivated to support them and win and that's the culture we have to create in this country. Back our teachers and our principals to win."
But Fred van Leeuwen, the head of Education International, addressed the summit with words of warning.
"We are in the middle of a great global debate about the future of education involving two educational visions. The first one is grounded in the understanding that without highly qualified, self-starting and motivated teachers there is little chance of all children getting the education they deserve.
"The second vision is sustained by the illusion that education can be delivered more cheaply and efficiently by the private sector - preferably by fewer, less-qualified, staff and a liberal dose of one-size-fits-all online programmes."
Mr van Leeuwen's speech highlighted tensions between some governments and their teaching workforce over education reform.
Though the summit is aimed at sharing good ideas in education, it is also clear that New Zealand's teachers and principals will be gathering intelligence about controversial overseas policies they fear will be introduced in this country.
The summit finishes on Saturday afternoon.
Foreign delegates to summit were welcomed to Te Papa's marae on Friday.
Q:
1) Given Mr van Leeuwen's comments (bold), what is your view of the best direction for NZ's education system?
2) Which approach and which direction do you think we are currently headed?
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