The problems all started with the Novopay debacle that cost tens of millions of dollars. Education needs to be driven from the knowledge of those at the grassroots, not clobbered by the vision and beliefs of those with the power.
For nine years the beliefs of the educationalists have steadily been eroded away into the shambles that exists today.
A. Shortage of Teachers - This had been predicted for years with the average age of teachers being in their mid 50s and the ever-increasing number of immigrants. A number of years ago I led a group of schools who ran a very successful re-training teacher programme under an MOE contract.
It only cost the teachers being re-trained their time. Today it costs them $4000 to be re-trained and teachers trained overseas are in the same predicament.
Solution - Contract high performing schools throughout NZ to re-train teachers using a practice-based teaching programme
B. Charter Schools - This is a legacy of the one-seat Act Party in spite of being told that elsewhere across the world they were a failed experiment. Charter school teachers don't have to be qualified. Schools can set their own curriculum, their own hours and term dates. Behaviourally challenged and/or special needs children in a state school struggle to get support they require.
All students who move to a charter school get up to $12,000 on enrolment, that is way more than a child with a disability gets on enrolment in a special school that caters for their needs.
Solution - Make it an equal playing field for all. Remove the "them and us" philosophy and implement a fair and equitable programme so that all schools can submit applications that they believe will work to meet individual needs of students and fund them accordingly.
C. Communities of Learning. These are an absolute joke. Schools were forced, threatened and manipulated to join a Community of Learning. If they didn't join they were told they would not be eligible for any form of professional development funding. Providers of professional development were required to become authorised. This meant that the Ministry of Education became in complete control of professional development and who was providing it. Creativity, innovative ideas and meeting the needs of the school were stifled. Principals appraisals can now only be carried out by MOE authorised appraisers. This meant that a number of high performing and experienced principals like myself could no longer return their expertise back into the profession. The Ministry of Education have become control freaks.
Solution - Provide every school with an equitable share of professional development and appraisal funding and then make them accountable for the way that they use it.
D. Modern Learning Environments - Those of you who were educated in the 70s and 80s will remember open plan classrooms. These are no different apart from the furniture and the technology in them. They only suit a percentage of children, especially those in their early years of education. Beyond that boys can't stand them. They like their men's shed, in other words their desk so that they have their own space and their treasures within them. There is no evidence that they actually work thus they are no more than an expensive gimmick and they will not stand the test of time. They actually mean that schools can use less qualified teachers with teacher aides to address pupil:adult ratios
Solution - Provide a sufficient numbers of classrooms in all schools so that they have the flexibility to meet the needs of the children. Education is not about one size fitting all.
The Labour Party spokesperson on education and the most likely Minister of Education Chris Hipkins' mother (Rosemary Hipkins) is a chief researcher for the NZ Council for Educational Research. The NZ First spokeswoman Tracey Martin has served on the Education and Science Select Committee for the past six years and had a private members bill in the ballot box based on improving the professional status of teachers.
They are both committed to improving New Zealand through starting with the education of our children. A great place to start and they both have backgrounds to actually make informed decisions. The educationalists may once again replace the bureaucrats when it comes to setting education policy and direction. For the sake of our children and our future, that needs to happen fast.
Malcolm Dixon is a retired principal of Frimley Primary School and a Hastings District councillor. Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz.
