Frank Muller: Job training can lighten university burden

COMMENT

I have been struck by the seemingly contradictory views of people involved in higher education and training.

In particular, there seems to be disagreement over whether too many students are doing largely academic university courses for which they are ill-suited or ill-prepared. And whether it would be better for many of them to do more skills-based training through trade-training schemes or polytechnic courses.

Professor Don Trow, who has taught commerce for 35 years at Victoria University, is in no doubt that the overall quality of students has declined significantly over the past decade, since university enrolments began to grow rapidly.

While the top quartile of students are as bright and capable as students have ever been, nearly half and certainly the bottom quartile "have neither the ability nor the attitude required to complete a good degree programme in the university system," he says.

Part of the reason, he believes, is the lower requirement for entry. An additional factor is the poor attitude towards serious study of many students, particularly males. This, he says, appears to have developed in secondary schools, and is aggravated by an inability to write simple, clear English or handle basic numeracy.

Professor Trow says secondary schools must place more emphasis on developing literacy and numeracy skills. But he acknowledges this will be difficult, given the growing pressure to broaden curriculums - to include driving instruction in the case of one school, for example - and cope with increasing social pressures.

The lead must come from a higher level.

Professor Trow also says universities must tighten entry levels, and put greater emphasis on quality, rather than quantity. Again, this will not be an easy in our market-oriented environment.

The question of higher education and admission to university was highlighted recently in a couple of surprising statements. In one, an educationalist said that about 60 per cent of students enrolled at universities failed to complete a training course, and presumably either dropped out or drifted for some years, aimlessly switching direction. If that is correct, it is a matter of real concern.

The other statement was the Minister of Finance's admission of concern about the large number of young people "clogging up the tertiary sector" and putting themselves into heavy debt, without completing a training course.

At the same time, as he pointed out, New Zealand was suffering from a worrying skills gap which was acting like a brake on economic growth and productivity.

Exacerbating the overall problem is the relative ease with which students can obtain loans to help them do a raft of tertiary courses. These accumulated loans have grown to frightening proportions, both for the nation and for many of the loanees.

We are constantly reminded of the manifest unfairness of the burden students face. Once a nation embarks on this course, however, it becomes difficult to make significant changes without incurring the charge of unfairness to those who have gone before. Probably the best course would be to ameliorate the repayment terms as much as possible and somehow reduce the overall demand for student loans.

So, how serious is all this, and what needs to be done?

We need to go back to the secondary school sector to look for possible solutions. That will be difficult, given the pressures on schools and the sharp divisions of opinion about the NCEA.

It may be pertinent to refer to the views of Cormac O'Duffy, an Irish educational researcher. Arriving here eager to see the Tomorrow's Schools philosophy in action, O'Duffy, after one year, began to harbour serious doubts.

A major concern for him was the apparent lack of prescriptive requirement in the curriculum. In this regard, he referred to the Education Review Office's own summation - "the curriculum statements contain certain achievement objectives, and some suggested learning experiences, but do not list the content to be covered". As O'Duffy says, "A national curriculum with no content. Is this possible?"

To underline this, O'Duffy points out how New Zealand's standing in OECD comparison tables for literacy, numeracy and scientific standards has dropped sharply since the education changes of the 1980s and 1990s.

From first in the world in terms of literacy, in a series of surveys a few years ago, we have slipped to 13th. In numeracy skills, we come last among six participating English-speaking countries, and 20th out of 24 OECD countries.

Science skills are no better. We come 13th among 15 OECD countries, and last among five English-speaking countries.

While such statistics are not an absolute indicator, they make for depressing reading. Clearly, they tell us about the need for schools to pay more attention to the fundamental areas of literacy, numeracy and scientific skills.

It is time for schools to be more active in encouraging students to think seriously about continuing education and training through avenues other than universities.

Dr Andrew West, the Tertiary Education Commission chairman, was on the mark when he said that parents' desires for their children to gain a degree were often detrimental. "Many parents want their children to have a secondary education that leads to a degree. We need to ask, is that always in the individual's best interests and how many graduates does this country need?"

He referred to the growing skill shortages in trade and technical areas, while more than half the 300,000 people doing tertiary study were at degree level or higher.

So it's up to the secondary schools, the parents concerned, and the public to promote the whole spectrum of careers out there, whether through university training, other tertiary institutions, trade-training courses, apprenticeships, or on-the-job learning.

Restoring respect for skills-based training other than in the universities would also lessen the burden on universities to absorb more students. They would then be better placed to pay more attention to research, in addition to their teaching role.

Most fundamentally, what we need is a renewed respect for a work ethic, a factor that has been so instrumental in developing the world's economic powerhouses.

* Frank Muller, of Remuera, is a retired diplomat.