Letters: There’s no ducking parental responsibility; privatisation already works in NZ

'Unfortunately, today too many parents are selfish and always put their own wants and needs before their child’s.' Photo / Getty Images

Letters to the Editor

It starts at home

The research into child hunger led by Dr Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau explored food poverty as a barrier for children to learn and it showed hungry students were ”trailing two to four years behind in subjects like maths and reading by age 15″ ( Jan 27).

While agreeing that hungry children would struggle to learn, and providing lunches in many schools is money well-spent, I’d suggest that the child’s home life plays an enormous part in this lack of progress.

Children do not start school until they are 5 or in some cases 6, and the building blocks for success at school need to have been put in place during those formative years.

Without a loving, nurturing home life where they are fed nutritious meals, have regular bedtimes, learn respect, the need to follow rules, are encouraged to explore nature, are valued and listened to, have limited screen time, are read to, and so on, a child will undoubtedly start school disadvantaged and will continue this way throughout their school life.

Unfortunately, today too many parents are selfish and always put their own wants and needs before their child’s, and this leads to neglect.

As well, it has become the norm for some parents to blame everyone else, the Government, and schools for their child’s lack of progress at school without ever considering the part they are playing.

Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.

Call to arms

Dr Russell Wills, an acknowledged child expert, quoted so many negative statistics as to make a thinking person cry (Jan 28).

Amateur parents, and we all start as amateurs, beget youth crime statistics and unmet mental health conditions. Well-meaning but underfunded support organisations work hard and achieve little of consequence. The government organisations which support these groups also suffer from congenital underfunding.

What possible internal control capability can we therefore expect that the growing youth of our nation might have?

A rhetorical question perhaps? Or a call to arms? Wills has outlined the problem, but he has also offered solutions proven to work.

This is not an area where parsimony can be accepted by anybody. Open the purse strings. Provide the right training to the right people and pay them the right money to be attracted to this industry.

Nigel Meek, Raglan.

Going private

Privatisation already exists in health, education, and transport (Jan 28). Many New Zealanders have private health insurance, there are a lot of private schools, (and after-hours crammers) and toll roads, the result of public/private partnerships.

Do the anti-privatisation advocates want to close these down? Surely people should have freedom of choice, especially when they are prepared to pay GST on their choice.

Users of private services leave more spaces for those who choose, or can’t afford, private provision and by paying tax help subsidise public provision.

More privatisation might improve the provision and quality of services, the debate should take place.

Nick Hamilton, Remuera.

Breakers not NZ

Breakers basketball team owner Matt Walsh states he has heard the fans regarding not enough homegrown ballers on the roster (Jan 27) but that is only one of the key requirements necessary for success.

The other key requirement in my opinion is to build a Kiwi culture not only in the team but the whole organisation. In the golden era of Breakers teams (four titles in five years) the roster included eight to nine talented Kiwis with three really good imports.

The overriding factor of this golden era success was the philosophy and commitment of the then owners Paul and Liz Blackwell. The Blackwells built a culture of whānau, respect, pride and buy-in from everyone. Matt Walsh needs to look at this model as it’s more than a recruitment issue.

Coming in from an NBA background with no inside knowledge of New Zealand basketball after eight years he still seems unaware of local talent. Every team in the Aussie NBL has at least one Kiwi player, most have two and some have three. Add to this many of our top players are now playing in tough European leagues.

Finally, Matt Walsh stop this senseless playing of NBA teams which adds unrealistic travel demands and achieves very little.

Jeff Thomas, Mount Maunganui.

Keeling over

The spectacle that Auckland’s Anniversary Regatta once was is no more.

Back in the day all classes of yachts started and finished off Westhaven. Late this anniversary day morning I drove from St Heliers to Westhaven to see what was happening. Not much.

No small centreboarders either at Kohimarama or Tāmaki yacht clubs and a very small number of keel boats, mostly vintage, at Westhaven.

I appreciate that times have changed dramatically since my youth but perhaps it’s time for the Auckland Regatta to be moved to a normal weekend, leaving the anniversary long weekend to family cruising or other pursuits.

Dennis Ross, Glendowie.