Skill?s Out

New Zealand may be facing a future in which no one can cook, sew or build houses. Andrea Jutson asks: what's happening in the knowledge economy?
First period at an Auckland high school. Johnny Smith, 16, and in what used to be the Fifth Form but is now Year 11, is trying to make a basketball hoop. His teacher, Mrs Cook, hovers helplessly. She usually teaches food technology. However, there were no suitable metalwork applicants when the last teacher retired, so here she is. Johnny's sister, Jane, is writing an essay about skirt-making for Mr Wood. Mr Wood doesn't know how to sew a skirt himself, but he knows the students will get the same NCEA credits just for writing about one. THIS IS high school technology in 2006. ''Woodwork'' and ''sewing'' are out ? ''hard materials'' and ''fabric technology'' are in. According to the Ministry of Education, all technology subjects are the same and its teachers are interchangeable. According to many teachers, New Zealand is facing a future in which no one can cook our meals, fix our cars or build our houses. We will have a generation without life skills ? witness last week's cover story about parents' lack of knowledge and the nits nightmare ? and a knowledge economy with great plans but no one to make them work. The Aucklander sat in on a meeting at one South Auckland high school at which technology teachers were discussing the freshly baked draft curriculum. For the first time, there is no mention of the word ''skills'' in any of the documents. The emphasis is on ''understanding processes'' and problem solving, not practical work. The teachers are horrified. ''If you don't understand the tools and the materials, how are you going to be able to find the solutions?'' asks one. If the curriculum were followed to the letter, students could spend their entire school lives without practicing what they've been taught. Much like being able to read and appreciate music without actually being able to play. This may sound like a worst-case scenario, but the same teacher tells of a woodwork teacher-trainee who came to the school in his final year. The man didn't know what any of the workshop equipment was or how to change the blades on a saw. NOT ONE school we spoke to disagrees with this bleak view of our unskilled future. Byron Bentley, principal of top-decile Macleans College in Bucklands Beach, backs up the South Aucklanders' opinion of technology. ''It's very, very disturbing,'' he says. ''Technology's now in the realm of social studies. If the ministry knew the true extent of the problem they'd be very worried.'' Tim McMahon at the Ministry of Education calls the teachers' reaction ''surprising and disappointing''. He says long-time teachers have problems with the new curriculum, which has swung away from trades and crafts to academic ''knowledge society'' learning since the mid-1990s. He admits there is a shortage of technology teachers but adds that physics is suffering equally. At the time of writing, there were 29 vacancies for technology teachers at Auckland schools. Twelve were for a food specialist. Onehunga High School's Angie Wilson says of a staff of four home economics teachers, she is the only one with a home economics qualification. One specialised in early childhood education, another in information technology. ''You've got to take what you can get,'' she says. The median age of technology teachers is 55. Though an admirer of the curriculum ? he says it's got scope ? Alastair Wells at Auckland University's Faculty of Education admits teachers are retiring faster than they can be replaced. Yet not one institution in the country offers practical technology courses for teacher-trainees. We spoke with a teacher whose fashion designer sister would love to teach. Without a degree, she can't get onto a course. She'd need to spend four years getting a degree and a diploma, without earning in the meantime. The ministry is considering a two year training course for technology teachers, but that's still a two-year stint without earning. Mr Wells admits it's hard to imagine many wanting to give up industry pay scales of $80,000-$110,000 for the lower rungs of a teacher's salary ? about $50,000. WITHOUT TEACHERS, the skills shortage will soon become critical. In Manukau City, employers are crying out for skilled workers, who aren't there, and are recruiting from overseas. Manukau Institute of Technology's Paul Jeurissen says the Government's renewed apprenticeship scheme is having some success. Meanwhile, schools have been known to close courses or recruit unsuitable candidates to fill the gaps. Teachers often have to teach colleagues on the job. Three of Mrs Wilson's home economics colleagues have packed it in to teach English as a second language. The extra paperwork involved in teaching ''processes'' over practical skills causes as much frustration to students as to teachers, as the numbers show. There used to be three classes of graphics students at the South Auckland high school we visited. Now there's one. BACK TO Johnny at our fictional high school. He wants to drop out of metals. It's boring, not to mention stressful. With all the long explanations he has to write, describing every design he makes and explaining why he did it, he doesn't get time to actually make anything. He's really good at making stuff, but his last description left out a line, and he failed. His mate Sam told him not to bother handing in the last assignment. They've already scraped enough NCEA credits to pass. Why do any more? ''We've gone from Generation X to Generation Why ? why do I have to do that?'' says one teacher. It doesn't augur well for the future, says Madeleine East, principal of Farm Cove Intermediate in Pakuranga. ''Technology is just such an important part of preparing people for life.