Editorial: Govt needs to work harder for schools

For most of our poorest children, the system succeeds. But for nearly a quarter of those in low decile schools, it does not. Photo / Getty Images

Editorial

We ask a great deal of our education system. It is our antidote to unequal wealth. By providing tax-funded education for all, we expect schools to iron out the disadvantages of children from households on low incomes and give every child a chance to leave school well equipped for life and earning a good living. For most of our poorest children, the system succeeds. But for nearly a quarter of those in low decile schools, it does not. They leave with no qualifications. They are called the "long tail" on charts of the population's educational achievements.

Policy-makers have been agonising over the long tail for at least 25 years under governments of both major parties and, as our series this week has reported, improvement has been minimal. The gap between low and high decile schools' pass rates at NCEA level 2 has been reduced from 30 percentage points to 25 points since 2009. The gap remains 30 per cent at level 3. Just 17 per cent of those in low decile schools received University Entrance, compared with 60 per cent from the high deciles.

The long tail persists despite more than 80 policy initiatives aimed at these pupils since the millennium. The period spans the life of the Labour Government and coming up for seven years of National. Its current Education Minister, Hekia Parata, says she takes heart from research that suggests only 18 per cent of the differences in student achievement can be attributed to socio-economic disparities. She quotes an OECD study that found the differences mainly result from the quality of teaching, expectations of pupils, school leadership and the relationship between parents and teachers with both focused on the pupil's learning.

If that is true, there remains much that schools and policy-makers can do. The Government is promoting an idea to improve the quality of teaching and school leadership by encouraging clusters, or communities, of schools to share skills and spread the influence of good leaders. It is something of a reversal from the reforms of the late 20th century when regional school boards were abolished and every school was given a board of trustees, along with more autonomy and responsibility for their physical upkeep.

It is also a departure from the zoning reintroduced by Labour to try to stop more able students going out of zone and keep a more even spread of ability in all schools. National has kept zones for what they are worth (a great deal for real estate, not much for educational equality) but it wants to see communities of schools that can cross zone boundaries.

There are fine, dedicated teachers and principals in schools of all deciles and those in the areas of lowest incomes will be having to work harder than those in wealthier places. Teachers' pay should contain a decile element to encourage them to stay where they are most needed. Decile funding, too, should be more heavily weighted to compensate for the private fundraising that makes high decile schools better off by far more than $1000 a pupil. Our series has described the hardships and discouragements for children of the poor. Nobody should deny them all the help they deserve.