"Erica Stanford needs to admit selfish political tactics have failed our kids." Photo / Supplied
"Erica Stanford needs to admit selfish political tactics have failed our kids." Photo / Supplied
Letters to the Editor
Banana maths and the Education Minister
Education Minister Erica Stanford says a 20- to 30-year problem in maths teaching at primary levels is responsible for systemic failure in Year 8 maths, but why and who allowed this?
The first data anyone asks is: how many of our primary teachers haveno formal qualifications in maths? Next, why can they be paid the same as highly qualified secondary teachers?
Maths and science subjects at secondary level needing algebra have been progressively harder to teach as they enter Year 9 needing to be taught basic maths. Who caused this? Politics, a public disdain for teachers, a “who needs maths, I never used it” culture?
Politicians need to minimise tax increases to garner votes, so cut health and education budgets. How? You set ridiculous constraints within which teachers (and nurses) bargain.
You delay using inflation as a weapon, frustrate pay settlements and provoke strikes knowing the public is ignorant of the long-term consequences on quality education.
Who is to blame for such poorly qualified primary teachers? Successive governments, disingenuous Education Ministers, a bloated Education Ministry and an apathetic public.
Pay peanuts, attract mathematical monkeys into primary teaching so kids get taught “banana” maths.
Their parents can’t help. Systemic failure is normal. Stanford needs to admit selfish political tactics have failed our kids.
Steve Russell, Hillcrest.
Making it count
At the National Party’s annual conference on Sunday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced that starting from next year, instead of in 2026, there will be a new structured maths curriculum for primary and intermediate schoolchildren.
Every few years classroom teachers have had to implement new ways of teaching maths, and also how to assess students’ progress.
These changes have been great for keeping advisers in jobs, but in many instances they were the bane of the classroom teacher’s daily maths lesson as the newfangled up-to-the-minute ways of teaching and assessment could be seen as a recipe for failure for many students.
And now, National’s Make it Count maths action plan is about to set children up for success. Let’s hope it will transform maths education as it is so confidently being touted to do.
Surely, many of us can understand the long-term effects and potential problems around bullying at schools, whether purely from a witness or from the recipient viewpoint (HoS editorial, Aug 4).
When your editorial talks about the known weekly occurrences of bullying at or after school, one has to wonder what century we live in. In an era of full online connectivity, smart surveillance or AI detection and interaction technology, we have to ask ourselves who implements these technologies where personality development is most at risk, like in teenage education.
How hard would it be for the Government to roll out an intensive monitoring system, perhaps in the form of an added observant person during classroom times, as well as immediate after-school observation? That way, there could be an approach and remedial action to bullies themselves and/or parents of these “temporary” nuisances. Because, let’s face it, later on in life they will soon be firmly put in their place when in the workforce.
I am sure nobody would want young ones to take the law in their own hands, commit suicide or end up as desperately insecure adults.
Just as much as nobody would approve of what I did in my younger years, when my slightly younger cousin got harassed by another young male. There was little time to think and, being a teenager myself then, I rushed over to his parents’ shop, filled a bucket half full with water and gave the culprit a bit of a direct-soaking hit. He never returned.
The fact that many bullies nowadays can get away with their actions is probably only because parents of the victims are often too time-poor or tired to find out where the culprit lives and pay a friendly visit. Maybe a tete-a-tete with him/herself or the parents would make an immediate difference for the better, although I get what the Rotorua victim’s mother is saying when she talks about the little consequences bullies face.
There should be a line drawn in the sand where political correctness is thrown out the window for a minute before serious dialogue takes place and fixes the problem once and for all.
So, here’s another opportunity the Government could divert some serious funds into, if it cares about young lives, parents at their wits’ end and totally unnecessary fear for innocent young ones.
Rene Blezer, Taupō.
Abuse consequences
One of the many appalling facts that emerged from the Abuse in Care report is that the vast majority of our jail inmates are abuse victims, many of them were Māori, and most of them have suffered inter-generational poverty.
Unemployment, housing poverty and shockingly unequal health outcomes continue to generate more abuse victims and jail inmates. Gang membership is a place of comfort for those who have been ignored and vilified by our wider society.
This Government must heed these facts and put more investment into the most needy in our society. Underfunding and cutbacks of basic services are making this worse. More punishment and incarceration is cruel and simplistic and won’t solve the problem.
Vivien Fergusson, Mt Eden.
Power failure
In the last few days, we have seen lots of excuses for the Government not acting like the majority shareholder it is in the electricity gentailers. Over years, governments have been guilty of sitting on their hands and not using their shareholding to get the gentailers to invest in more renewable generating capacity. Instead, they have happily taken the dividends and company tax without any thought for the infrastructure needs of a hugely increasing energy demand.
So now what we get is one minister ignoring the fact his Government is a majority shareholder and saying gentailers are profiteering, and the Prime Minister saying let’s exacerbate the climate change problem and drill for more gas.
Neil Anderson, Algies Bay.
Kaiya Ota of Team Japan competes in the Men's Sprint 1/16 Finals at the Paris Olympics on August 7. Photo / Getty Images
Olympic tech
So $250,000 is the estimated cost for a Japanese track cycling bike at the Olympics? Surely this is an insane cost?
This is supposed to be an equal contest of competitor vs competitor. A human contest, not an expensive technology contest.
I think the time has come for the Olympics organisers to issue a standard bike for all competitors so that we get a fair contest.
There is no other sport that offers competitors an advantage in technology. Imagine if sailors were allowed to have different sails or Lisa Carrington rocked up in a $250,000 high-tech canoe that gave her an advantage.
