Trevor Mallard: Our country blessed with many dynamic teachers

Trevor Mallard

Ivan Snook advises teachers to continue with their professional reading (see link at end of article). I would endorse that advice, with the proviso that teachers find someone other than Ivan Snook to read.

He paints a negative picture of teachers ground down by the dictates of a managerial system that saps them of their creativity, initiative and energy.

Far from the over-controlling system described by Snook, many comparative studies of our education system show that our teachers have a greater opportunity to exercise professional judgment and autonomy than teachers in most other countries.

The Tomorrow's Schools reforms of the late 1980s assumed, and depended on, the professional skills and judgments of principals and teachers.

That was because those principals and teachers ended up as part of a team that exercises greater local management over the schools they work in than teachers in most other parts of the world.

Our teachers have discretion over what is taught, how it is taught and the resources and textbooks they use.

Those comparative studies of education systems referred to earlier also show that New Zealand students are among the world's best at literacy and mathematics.

These results are much more likely to be the result of a professional and energetic teaching workforce than of a demoralised and dispirited profession where teachers cannot "think for themselves", as described by Snook.

Where Snook describes an education regime that exists "simply to prepare young people to be workers", this Government describes education as being one of the foundations that helps New Zealanders shape their culture, their environment and their ability to "experience life to the full". (See "Education Priorities for New Zealand", May 2003.)

Where Snook describes teachers engaged in "joyless compliance", I constantly see teachers engaged in the exciting task of helping young people become our future leaders and innovators.

I will not list all the initiatives put in place over the past five years to support teachers, but they have been considerable. One of the most significant was the increased number of teachers placed in schools. This Government's commitment to increased teacher numbers enables schools to better meet the needs of their students.

Other initiatives, such as the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), also help schools to tailor educational opportunities for their students.

While the NCEA has entailed a change in teachers' working practices, a survey of secondary teachers found that "teachers generally felt that the work involved in implementing the NCEA was becoming more manageable as people were growing more familiar with it, though, overall, the NCEA curriculum and assessment procedures will entail a permanent increase in teacher workload over the previous procedures" ("Secondary Teacher Workload Study", February 2005).

A secondary teachers' union study concluded: "Nevertheless, most teachers see the NCEA as a definite improvement on the previous qualifications system and believe schools are developing effective systems for the assessment of their students" ("Teachers talk about NCEA").

Most parents know that today's classrooms are exciting and lively places to be. They are likely to be models of multiculturalism and centres of technological innovation. Students will learn fundamental cognitive skills and will also be learning how to be global citizens.

Snook seems to have a particular dislike for the "curriculum documents".

The curriculum represents a set of achievement aims, essential learning areas, essential skills, and values that all New Zealand schools are required to follow.

In a country such as New Zealand where families are mobile and students can be enrolled in many schools over their school career, it is essential that we have a way of making sure that all students have equal opportunity to learn.

The national curriculum achieves that purpose by setting out in broad terms the knowledge and understanding that all students need to acquire, irrespective of which school they attend.

Far from being standardised, the curriculum empowers schools and teachers to design programmes relevant to the needs of their students and communities.

I do wonder what the effect of Professor Snook's comments might be on the enthusiasm and morale of the teaching graduates he presumably seeks to inspire.

* Education Minister Trevor Mallard is responding to a graduation address delivered last month by Ivan Snook, emeritus professor of education at Massey University.