The purpose of education is not just employment and careers – we are being highly negligent of the humanity of our young as well, Alwyn Poole writes. Photo / Greg Bowker
The purpose of education is not just employment and careers – we are being highly negligent of the humanity of our young as well, Alwyn Poole writes. Photo / Greg Bowker
Opinion by Alwyn Poole
OPINION
In terms of election priorities New Zealand’s education system has typically been of relatively low regard and not seen as being a vote winner. There were reasons for this.
Approximately 75 per cent of students did okay to well, so a large proportion of families had no major issue.
Our education system had a (somewhat mythical) history that led many – as recently as nine years ago - to talk with hushed reverence about our “world-class system” (even though it has never been so for the marginalised).
Labour has been seen as the party for education – despite eight out of the 10 worst electorates for education results being long-term Labour seats. It seems voters used to have Stockholm syndrome and had come to love their oppressors – there are signs that it is changing. Teacher unions being attached by the hip to Labour accentuated the situation.
Maybe the most important is the strong declarations by people, as eminent and well-informed as Cameron Bagrie, that our economy in 20–30 years’ time (and, I would argue, sooner) is heavily dependent on our education system/schools today.
We have an urgent cost-of-living crisis but we are in grave danger of permanently embedding it through significant portions of our school graduates having no qualifications, poor literacy and numeracy, little ability to think freely, deeply or creatively, many being very fragile in terms of mental health and very few skills to enhance productivity, create a return for an employer or set up a business themselves.
Keeping in mind that the purpose of education is not just employment and careers, we are being highly negligent of the humanity of our young as well. You accentuate that by adding that many are unlikely to earn well, rent a good home, save to buy or take an OE. The current situation is truly appalling.
A very significant amount of faith has been lost in the system. The term 4 2022 full attendance statistics did creep above 50 per cent across all deciles but only because students on study leave all get marked present whether they were previously attending or not. These statistics are, of course, accentuated for low-decile students (30 per cent), Māori (38 per cent) and Pasifika (34 per cent) students.
It is striking that Asian students – stereotypically seen as diligent – fully attended at only 58 per cent. As one Asian student from a very expensive private school said to me, “With all of the disruptions in the last three years we went searching and found superior teachers online and worked out that we can actually do better academically by grouping together and working on our own.”
The trend around the world is for parents/students to withdraw from the “system” and seek better alternatives.
Concerns have been twofold – both the quality of the education provided and the content being taught.
I see some merit in this pivot and helped provide an opportunity for some through assisting with starting Mt Hobson Academy Connected (though not now involved) – an online school with significant social interaction. While the Ministry of Education is coy about numbers here, Stanford research in the US shows 1.2 million children have left the public school system.
Not everyone is equipped to make such changes and we need genuinely significant policy – not just trite announcements about reducing class sizes for Year 4 – 8 students from 29 to 28 over two or three years.
We have 24 per cent of our Māori students leaving school with less than Level 1 NCEA. This is after going through a system that has been funded for 13,200 hours for each of them up until the end of Year 11.
The largest schools for Māori in New Zealand are the Correspondence School, Rotorua Boys’ High, Tauranga Boys’ College, Whangārei Girls’ High, Hamilton Girls’ High, etc.
While developing bespoke and effective schools directly for Māori we need great policy and support for improving outcomes urgently and exactly where they are currently at.
We also have a parenting crisis.
Alwyn Poole. Photo / Supplied
Being a good/great parent has always been challenging but, in a fragmented and social media-influenced society, the pressures are intensified.
Parenting needs great emphasis and support and parents need to be respected, including their views on content, and encouraged to contribute and participate.
When I asked the former principal of St Paul’s, Ponsonby (Kieran Fouhy) what the key steps were to bringing about the remarkable improvement in outcomes for the school he said, “Firstly, enrol the family.”
Which political party can come up with the best policy to enhance our parenting?
The future prosperity and social cohesion of our country significantly depend on our education system.
This election, education must be a massive priority as it affects every New Zealander.
The education disaster of the last six years must be more than reversed. That won’t happen by trying to go back to the same old ways. Politicians will only come up with truly effective policies if the electorate demands them.
-Alwyn Poole is on the Villa Education Trust and operates Innovative Education Consultants.
