KEY POINTS:
If anything, apart from the economy, needs a fresh look and new inspiration from the incoming Government, it is education.
New Zealand is right up there with the world leaders - Denmark and Korea - when it comes to the performance of our top students. But unlike those
two countries, we have a huge disparity between our top achievers and the rest.
Much of the reason for that is Denmark and Korea are largely monocultural, whereas New Zealand has always had two cultures at least, and latterly a whole bunch more.
And the tail-enders in our education system are, unfortunately, made up mainly of Maori and Pasifika children. Sure, there are many Pakeha kids who also miss out, but they are a minority.
So the most important task of the new Government when it comes to education is to maintain the standards at the top end while at the same time improving the lot of the tail.
Thus, among several inspired choices by National in appointing its ministerial team is the selection of Pita Sharples to assist the redoubtable and pragmatic Anne Tolley as Associate Minister of Education.
Dr Sharples, whose PhD is in anthropology and linguistics, has an astonishing CV when it comes to education, in teaching, consultancy and administration.
Mrs Tolley, the MP for the East Coast electorate with its large Maori population, has seen her three children through their education - in itself a useful qualification for her new job - and has served on the Napier Girls' High School board of trustees.
It will not be difficult for the new team to ensure that our top students continue to hold their place among the world's best, for they are children and young adults who have a real desire to learn and who have wholehearted support from their families.
The real challenge will be to find methods and means to lift the performance of the thousands of children who are at the other end of the educational spectrum and who, by and large, have no parental support.
It is there that the nub of the problem lies. It is all too easy to blame "the system", or schools, or teachers for the lowly performance of so many kids, but the real fault lies elsewhere - with their parents.
For instance: at a decile 3 school with which I have a minor involvement, whose roll is 93 per cent Maori, at least half of new entrant 5-year-olds have the oral skills of 2-year-olds and no writing skills at all.
Thus the teachers cannot begin at square one; they have to spend huge amounts of time bringing their new charges up to a primary school starting point.
The Labour-led Governments of the past nine years have done much to address this problem with the provision of childcare subsidies and a free early childhood education.
But much more needs to be done.
The problems don't end when the kids get to school. Truancy remains a constant bugbear for low-decile schools, although it has improved markedly since the Clark Government ordered a hard-line crackdown.
When the daily attendance rolls come in at my local primary, an administrator telephones every absentee's household - about 20 a day - to find out where the child is.
If she cannot make telephone contact, then as many as three letters are sent to the child's home address. If there is still no response the matter is put in the hands of the local truancy officer and if she cannot get to the parents, then the local community constable is asked to give it a go.
The next step is to report the parents to Child Youth and Family, which arranges a family group conference at which the parents' capacity to care for and protect the child can be brought into question.
I'm told that since the crackdown began, the truancy rate has dropped markedly, but the school's aim of a 92 per cent daily attendance is still to be achieved.
Mrs Tolley and Dr Sharples face a massive task in dealing with the problem of parents of the backward and the truant who have an indifferent attitude to schooling. Yet it is hard to blame them - their parents probably acted the same way. There has, nevertheless, to be some way of breaking the mould.
Week in and week out I observe teachers and teacher aides expending huge reservoirs of patience and kindness on recalcitrant, frustrated and often angry youngsters.
And when I attend an assembly and look at the sea of faces of those who are the future of this country, I cry out to God that somehow some way will be found to allow each and every one to fulfil his or her potential.
