A lot to work on as well as education

Lara Meyer

Opinion

by Lara Meyer

Re: Education more important than inflation, housing, crime — May 6 column.

Dear Tim,

Education is very important to ensure that our young people are equipped to engage in a functioning democratic society. You seem to have failed to recognise that the perfect storm of insufficient or unhealthy homes, a cost-of-living crisis (not entirely of our making) and an increasing economic divide between rich and the poor in Aotearoa NZ is taking a toll on our young people.

You probably grew up in a house you got to live in for years on end. Lots of our families now have no idea where they will have to live in a few weeks time.

You probably engaged in an education delivered in ways that mirrored your own values and ethnicity.

You probably, like me, are of the generation that didn’t have to pay back a student loan until you were in your mid-30s.

You didn’t try to attend school during a global pandemic, while your parents worried themselves sick because they had lost their jobs and you were trying to Zoom into your lessons dealing with patchy internet.

You probably didn’t need to go out and find a job to help make ends meet.

Did you know that during Covid, schools provided almost every student with a device to learn from home? The only problem was our most disadvantaged children often didn’t receive theirs in time and when they did, their internet was not suitable to allow them to participate?

Our kids watch a few of us living a dream life. You know, in a house that is warm, dry and “theirs”. Some of us don’t have to choose between buying decent food, paying for power or paying the rent.

Some children get a free bus to school or get a ride from Mum or Dad. Some have bikes and some can walk. Lots of other young people have none of those things and neither do their parents — and when it rains those children choose to remain away from school because the alternative is being cold and wet all day.

You have absolutely no idea how hard it is out there for many of our children and their parents in real Aotearoa these days.

Do you know why so many families are in real crisis and some kids have disengaged from school?

Most schools offer a Eurocentric model of education. Lots of kids can not see their lives, interests or aspirations reflected in the way they are being taught.

Some politicians many years ago decided to sell off state houses and privatised our assets. It has been a disaster.

Our tax system favours the richest people and penalises the rest of us.

We need to sort out the tax system.

We need to understand that a warm, dry home with enough healthy food and money to pay for power are a right not a privilege.

Only then can our kids and their parents start to think about getting to school and gaining an education rather than trying to survive each day as best they can.