Nursing ambitions
Currently, around 60 per cent of nurses working in New Zealand are immigrants; thank goodness for them but where are our homegrown nurses?
My belief is that we should return to hospital-based training. Classroom training could still be done by institutes but the majority would be apprenticeship learning at
the coal face.
The model would be a 2-to-3-year training while paid a small salary. The entry qualification would be at NCEA level or similar.
The current model has a high academic standard for entry, leaves nurses with a large student loan and not a great deal of practical experience.
Once nurses graduate they could choose to work in general nursing roles, including age care, and be paid a good wage. Those wishing to specialise in areas such as intensive care, operating theatre, neonatal, etc, would do an extra year or two in a technical Institute with advanced practical and theoretical training, then be paid a higher salary than general nurses.
Linda Robert, Parnell.
Unchartered waters
Former Act leader, Richard Prebble expressed concern (NZ Herald, August 3) that "we are witnessing the collapse of what was once the world's finest public school system".
The cause, he wrote, is growing school non-attendance with the resultant deterioration in literacy and numeracy achievement. He added: "International comparison tests reveal NZ education standards have fallen from being the best globally to Third World status."
The future is bleak if this trend persists, the major social issue of our time, yet political indifference seems apparent.
The solution, if the state is failing our children, is to reintroduce charter schools, previously successful in ensuring attendance and academic attainment, yet sadly abolished.
P. J. Edmondson, Tauranga.
Teachers to teach
Richard Prebble (NZ Herald, August 3) used the term "pupil-led learning". From my experience, children are not very good teachers (A for effort but F for results).
My kids were subjected to this learning and as a parent wanting my kids to do well, I spent more time teaching than the teachers did. A lot of parents don't have the time or aptitude or dollars to school their young ones outside school hours.
Time for teachers to get back to teaching. The old system was developed over thousands of years and is still better than anything new.
Randel Case, Bucklands Beach.
Attack mode
The performance of Opposition parties in the democratic world has been abysmal. In the perfect storm of the pandemic, Ukraine war and climate change, leaders from Christopher Luxon to the UK's Labour leader Keir Starmer relentlessly attack incumbent governments without presenting any realistic alternatives. Each pretends their own government is to blame for the cost of living while avoiding the real culprits including Putin who must be laughing at the antics of the Western democracies. Those such as the United Kingdom's former chancellor are pilloried for orthodox economic solutions which might well be the only realistic prescription for working our way out of the mess we now collectively find ourselves in.
The massive subsidies paid during the first Covid-19 wave, not just in New Zealand but in other countries, must now be paid for, as must the costs of earlier failing to tackle climate change. The ongoing embargo on Russian oil also bears a cost if it is to succeed.
All these incur financial pain. Opposition leaders everywhere need to be brave enough to state this and not tell fairy tales.
Gehan Gunasekara, Stonefields.
Opposing views
Mark Young of Ōrewa (NZ Herald, August 3) wonders why the Opposition should offer workable solutions for problems when the Government will just use their ideas and take the credit.
One good reason, even if you believe the Government will take the credit, would be because you care more about New Zealand and helping to make it the best it can be than you care about getting the credit.
All MPs represent their communities and, regardless of whether they sit on the Government or Opposition benches, should be going to work every day to do their best for their communities, not score points and tally up the score.
Megan Mills, Western Springs.
