Education Minister Erica Stanford in her Beehive office. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Parents need to pitch in on learning
The highlight of Audrey Young’s article on Education Minister Erica Stanford’s efforts to improve educational outcomes was embedded unobtrusively in the middle of the article that had nothing to do with research or teacher training (HoS, Aug 18). It had everything to do with parental involvement in education.
While not everyone will agree with what Stanford is doing and wants to do with improving educational outcomes, surely parental involvement is one of the least complicated ways of doing this.
However, having taught for many years in Singapore’s public education system, reputably one of the best in the world by comparison, in my view parental involvement in education in New Zealand appears to be sadly lacking.
Parent/teacher meetings in New Zealand were usually highlighted by the numbers of parents who did not attend. You’d get more parents on the sidelines of a First XV rugby game. The opposite was the case in Singapore, with the principal ringing absentee parents after meetings.
Maybe a significant answer to our problems in education lies in parents becoming more involved and taking more responsibility for their children’s education and not just with arguments over what the latest research shows or does not show.
Bernard Walker, Mt Maunganui.
Conversation is child’s play
That more and more children are starting school without appropriate oral language skills for their age group is very concerning, and it appears Covid-19 and excessive screen time are being blamed.
During the mandatory Covid lockdowns we endured there was certainly a halt put on occasions where children could mix freely, but it didn’t mean parents/caregivers had to stop talking about everyday life with them.
If parents are engaged with their children, oral language skills generally develop appropriately. To read that a growing number of children starting school can’t hold a “normal” 5-year-old’s conversation, “babble like an infant” and don’t understand what is being said to them is extremely sad and begs the question of whether there is much conversation with the child in the home.
It’s a parent’s responsibility to monitor screen time for little children so that it doesn’t become excessive, and continually end up as a “babysitter”.
Unfortunately, the outcomes of this lack of oral language development are that young children are being set up to struggle at school through no fault of their own, and it will be preschool and primary school teachers who will be blamed if these children don’t reach the oral language progress indicators for their age group.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
Guns and lobbyists
The Herald on Sunday on page 5 last week discussed “The growing gun problem” in a police briefing to Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee.
But of course she did absolutely nothing due to her very strong links with the gun industry. In fact “since the ban on AR-15 guns McKee has fought for these weapons of mass murder to be legal again” (Shane Te Pou, page 27).
So we are much like America in this one way for certain. In America, Donald Trump keeps their very easy deadly gun laws as the gun lobby gives him millions of dollars every year just for that purpose. I recently saw that a stoush appears to be brewing between the Police Association’s president Chris Cahill and Act minister Nicole McKee over consultation on firearms reform.
On arriving in Parliament, in fact, McKee thanked her husband and children for their support, as well as the firearms community, especially the members of the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners - who had given her the korowai she wore as she spoke.
She added, “You have persevered for a rational approach to firearms legislation wanting to be part of the solution. You have never been the problem, despite such accusations by the police, the Government, and the media”. So now the Police Association is urging the Prime Minister to strip the Act MP of the gun portfolio. That is absolutely needed now.
In a profile on the Act Party website, it says she was also the spokeswoman for the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners and its Fair and Reasonable campaign.
As of now sadly we have a minister with strong links to the gun lobby here looking after our gun laws. She should be immediately barred from doing this and stopping the lifesaving work. Our Police Association is right to ask for her to be barred.
People with previous or current links to the gun lobby (or tobacco industry) should be barred forever from having these critical laws in their portfolio. Until then, both industries will kill New Zealanders.
Murray Hunter, Titirangi.
MMP anomaly
I cannot believe Darleen Tana is still allowed to remain in Parliament and receive a taxpayer-funded salary.
She was not an elected member of Parliament, but is there only due to her place on the Green Party list, and the fact they received enough party votes for her to make up their numbers.
As she has resigned from the Green Party, she should automatically be required to leave Parliament and her place be taken by the next person on the Green Party list. I realise elected politicians who resign from their party often remain in Parliament as independent members, as they are there based on voters selecting the individual (albeit also often based on their party affiliation).
List candidates should not have the same right to remain, as we vote for the party and names and placement on that list are at the whim of that party.
Perhaps this is an anomaly in the MMP regime that needs to be seriously looked into.
Ian Turnbull, Hamilton.
Surcharge ripoff
Recently I took our family out for a meal and when time came to pay using a credit card, there was a 2.2% surcharge fee payable, which equated almost to an additional flat white.
I understand the cafe is passing on to its customers a fee that the bank is charging them, but what exactly do they do to merit charging that amount?
You can use a debit card and pay no surcharge, so why with a credit card are customers charged a surcharge, especially in these days of automatic processing being a simple computer transaction?
It was probably more justified in the days of manual banking using cheques when much of the processing was done by hand.
To me it’s just a plain ripoff that needs looking into by the appropriate authorities.
Paul Beck, West Harbour.
The track will stay closed until safety is confirmed, says DoC.