Go directly to jail?

John Tamihere's call for NCEA passes for all is silly, and misses the point. Photo / File

'Tis the season when everyone who wants to get into Parliament will say whatever he or she thinks will help get them there. One hopes that is all that motivated Māori Party co-leader John Tamihere when he called for NCEA passes for all Year 1-13 students in the wake of this year's Covid-19 disruptions to their education.

Tamihere drew a very long bow when he suggested that students whose don't achieve this year will be destined for a life of crime, although it's fair to say that these days a lack of academic qualifications closes a lot of doors. And kids who do not prosper at school may face a bleaker future than those who do, the jobs that were once available in abundance to those who were not academically inclined having largely disappeared.

Tamihere's solution is to give every student a free pass to the next level, in compensation for the disruption they have faced thanks to Covid-19. If the government did not allow "this form of amnesty," he said, "we heighten the unequal nature of our present education system." That allowed for students in low-decile schools who could not afford "data," let alone the devices they needed to work remotely, and who came from homes in "deep and constant stress."

Those children deserved a shot at a new future, where education would lead to emancipation from their present difficulty and would "empower them with an option of employment."

There can be no argument regarding the power of education to "emancipate," but giving a free pass to every student, regardless of what they have or have not achieved, is hardly the answer. There is no point in telling a student they have gained sufficient knowledge to advance when they haven't. That would do them no favours.

Tamihere also seems to believe that all the challenges that face our education system, and some students, arise from Covid-19, when they do not. He admitted that when he noted that prior to Covid, 35,000 Māori aged 14 to 20 were not in education, training or employment.That shameful statistic has nothing to do with this virus. Its foundations were laid long ago, by a system that has not responded to the erosion of opportunities for those who are not academically inclined. To say that we cannot knowingly allow those numbers to explode because this academic year has been disrupted completely misses the point.

If we really care about these young New Zealanders, and we should, we would have done something about giving them much greater opportunities than they have enjoyed thus far long ago, not because schools have been closed as a protection against spreading a virus.

Tamihere also claimed that students whose aspirations had been dashed by Covid-19 would have no option but to participate in crime, "or worse, to sell themselves on our streets." This is an extraordinary show of hyperbole, even for a man for whom exaggeration is stock in trade. If one school year, disrupted only in terms of students physically attending classes, is going to produce a whole new crop of criminals and prostitutes, then our education system is in even worse shape than many of us suspected.

And even if it is that bad, telling kids that they have made the grade when they haven't, because it would not be fair to do otherwise, wouldn't solve anything.

Tamihere could give every Year 13 student in the country a Bachelor's degree, and nothing will change. They will still know only what they know, and won't know what they don't know.

There is no doubt that the Covid lockdowns will have affected some students more detrimentally than others, but no one's future will have been irreparably blighted. To believe that, we must first accept that the closing of schools did as much damage as Tamihere claims. There is anecdotal evidence that some primary school children learned better at home than they did at school.

Consider too the popular view that the current generation of teenagers lack the resilience of their parents (perhaps) and their grandparents. It certainly seems that we are collectively raising a generation, with many exceptions of course, that is less prepared for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune than their predecessors. This idea of free NCEA passes for all takes that to a whole new level.

Once upon a time students who failed School Certificate (NCEA level 1) had two choices - to leave school, or to have another go. Many chose the latter. Every secondary school in the country had a second year fifth form, re-taking exams that teacher Bill Wilson told his 1969 students at Kaitaia College were designed to identify those who could read and write.

In those days students' self-esteem wasn't talked about, but was nurtured by genuine success for those who could and should have achieved academically, and other options for those for whom school was a less than joyful experience.

It's all very different now, in an age when whatever goes wrong in our lives is not our fault. Factors beyond our control are used to absolve us from all sorts of responsibility, and Covid-19 has offered a vast new range of grounds for doing that.

Meanwhile, no one, to the writer's knowledge, has pointed out to those students who have been locked out of school over recent weeks, and their teachers, that it has become standard practice for Year 12-13 students to take weeks of study leave at about this time of year, giving them the opportunity to prepare themselves at home for the exams that will end the year. What's the difference between study leave and a Covid lockdown? If the answer isn't immediately apparent, you are not alone.

Tamihere is quite right when he describes Māori as the most incarcerated indigenous population in the world being a national catastrophe and disgrace, but what does that have to due with Covid-19 and a disrupted school year? Prison statistics are founded on social issues that have been obvious for years. Fundamentally they are rooted in a social welfare system that for generations has sidelined those who do not fit into what former Prime Minister Helen Clark described as a knowledge economy. Thousands of New Zealanders have been told, and are still being told, that the best thing they can do is keep out of sight and accept a woeful standard of living from the taxpayer.

Anyone who wants to improve the lot of those thousands of New Zealanders who are being denied opportunities must look far beyond any impact of Covid-19 on the academic year. They must consider a swathe of factors that are committing some of our young, especially, to being locked out, not because their classrooms were closed for a few weeks but because our social system is, for them, fundamentally unfair. It would be helpful too if some parents looked at what they are and are not doing for their kids. They will have a big part to play if anything is to change.

Tamihere was right when he referred to a "deeply broken" education system, but wrong when he added the word "year." Every year should be remembered as one where too many doors were slammed shut on too many children, and the sooner we start fixing that the better life will be for all of us.

"We need a government that understands (students') journey and is going to support their road from education to employment," Tamihere said. Hear hear. If only he showed any sign of understanding where that journey begins.