Editorial: Unruly classrooms mean our kids who want to learn are missing out

New Zealand school students are among the worst-behaved kids in the OECD. Photo / 123rf

Editorial

EDITORIAL

News last week that New Zealand has some of the worst-behaved school children in the OECD will come as no surprise to our principals and teachers.

A new report by the Education Review Office (ERO) has called for classroom behaviour to become a priority and a more “national approach” to worsening behaviour.

The report found that behaviour issues are “particularly severe” in larger schools and poorer communities.

One principal reported children coming into school with “extreme violence with no empathy”.

Unsurprisingly, the disruptive behaviour is “badly impacting” students and making it tough on teachers.

This is not a new issue.

The ERO’s Education Evaluation Centre head Ruth Shinoda says unruly pupils have been a major issue over the past two decades.

The latest Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2022 report, an international gauge on students’ maths, reading and science literacy in every OECD country, showed significant drops in performance in maths and, to a lesser extent, science.

New Zealand students are still above the OECD average in all three subjects, but that’s also due to a crash in student performance in maths and reading across the OECD; 28 out of 37 OECD countries saw significant declines in maths.

Out-of-control classrooms won’t be helping. And if anything, our educators fear it’s getting worse.

It all comes after Ministry of Education figures showed schools stood down pupils 25,167 times in 2022, the highest number in more than 20 years of records.

So, what do we do? Surely solutions can’t all lie at the door of our teachers, who already say they are over-worked, underpaid, and over-stretched. Half of the 1557 teachers surveyed said it has them questioning if they want to stay in the job.

Educators are calling for more support to help manage the problem.

But what else can be done?

Schools are a mirror of our communities, and the issues young people experience at home are being brought inside the school gates.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the Government’s move to ban cellphones in classrooms by term two will help, as well as looking at how to improve teacher training.

The ERO report noted that 51 per cent of teachers said device-use reduced the ability of students to concentrate and may be one of the causes of worsening behaviour.

“We want students to focus on learning and achieving and getting rid of cellphones in classrooms is one of the best ways to do this,” Stanford said.

“[The] report tells an important story of what is happening in schools and importantly it tells us some of the changes we have introduced will work.”

Suspension or expulsion for bad behaviour only appear to be options of last resort.

Students - and certain parents - seem to know this. Teachers certainly do.

And in the meantime, it’s the kids who want to be there and ready to learn who are missing out.