Education fight is a matter of principal

THE gloves are off in what is becoming one of the biggest stand-offs in history between the Government and New Zealand principals.
National Standards were implemented in New Zealand schools at the beginning of this year and there has been ongoing debate about whether they will work or not.
The Government says the new standards will help lift student achievement but teachers say the new system is failing New Zealand children.
According to the Ministry of Education's website, National Standards are a description of what all New Zealand children are expected to be able to do in reading, writing and maths during Years 1 to 8.
The standards were developed by the Ministry and subject experts. They were originally introduced to give teachers, parents and children a clear idea of where a child is at in all three subjects and what they have to do next in their learning.
Working at or above the Standards during Years 1 to 8 means a child should be on track to finishing secondary school with NCEA level 2 or higher.
Education Minister Anne Tolley said at the recent NZEI conference in Rotorua that the standards would help raise the bar of student achievement in New Zealand.
However, president of the Rotorua Principals Association and principal of Westbrook School, Colin Watkins, is inclined to disagree.
He says the biggest issue surrounding National Standards is the amount of confusion.
"National Standards are so badly conceived. They're absolutely unworkable and unpractical."
While the intent of National Standards was to raise the bar of student achievement in New Zealand, Mr Watkins says it "simply won't do that".
"The reality is National Standards are untested. There's more holes in it than a sieve."
Mr Watkins is concerned subjects like science, music and arts are only being given minimal time and says the new standards have narrowed the New Zealand curriculum.
The latest curriculum, which was trialled over five years, was when it was introduced widely accepted as an innovative 21st century curriculum.
But Mr Watkins says that's now irrelevant because the National Standards don't fit the curriculum.
"It's thoroughly confusing."
National Standards aside, the Westbrook School principal says the most frustrating thing has been the Minister of Education's refusal to sit down and discuss the issue with principals: "It's insulting to the profession."
Mr Watkins says he has had "truckloads" of dealings with ministers in the past, ranging from "ding dong scraps" with the late Robert Muldoon to "robust discussions" with Trevor Mallard but he's "never seen the door slammed on us like the current Minister has done".
Mr Watkins says the "gloves have come off".
Principals across New Zealand will be putting in their own money towards a "fighting fund" which will be used to educate parents they say have been misinformed or who do not understand National Standards.
Rotorua woman Kylie Hickey is concerned the whole concept of National Standards was rushed without adequate consultation.
She says New Zealand should be focusing on pedagogy (the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching) to increase literacy and numeracy, not on how to compare our students.
Ms Hickey, who is finishing her Post Graduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching this year, says the National Standards issue is "something that concerns me as a future teacher".
Rotorua mother-of-four Lisa Adlam questions whether the standards will be successful or are easy to understand and whether teachers and students "get it".
"They don't, so they are a waste of everyone's time and playing with kids' education is a silly, silly thing to be messing with."
At this year's annual NZEI Te Riu Roa conference in Rotorua, Education Minister Anne Tolley said the Government was serious about education.
"We believe every single young New Zealander deserves the opportunity to reach their potential.
"As Education Minister, my absolute priority is to ensure all young New Zealanders have the reading, writing and maths skills they need to succeed. This is essential to raising achievement and delivering the education outcomes we all want for our young people."
Mrs Tolley said National Standards were a tool to make this happen. She cited a recent report which found maths performance in primary schools for Year 8 students had not improved for 12 years and in some areas there has been a decline in performance.
She says while our top performers are among the best in the world, New Zealand can not continue to stand still "because the world our children will face as adults is changing dramatically, requiring higher skill levels".
The minister says the Government will continue to monitor and evaluate the three-year implementation of the new National Standards.
 
WHAT'S WRONG
What education expert Lester Flockton says is wrong with National Standards:
- There is a blatant mismatch between New Zealand Curriculum levels and National Standards levels.
- Applying the same expectations, or benchmarks, to all children in each year group, starting with 5-year-olds (special needs to gifted) when, in a typical classroom, there are students with a wide range of abilities.
- National Standards are proven to have the effect of narrowing the quality, range and richness of children's learning experiences across the curriculum as teachers and schools become fixated with the demands of the system.
- The National Standards system fails to understand the realities of teacher learning and change process that lead to meaningful and sustained improvements.
- The manipulation of a naive public mind into believing we have a crisis in literacy and numeracy and that National Standards will fix it.
 

GOVT'S VIEW
Why the Government says National Standards support the New Zealand Curriculum:
- The standards will help schools better understand their students' learning needs through providing clear learning goals and information about students' progress and achievement.
- This will help schools and teachers make more informed decisions about how the school curriculum is planned, used and reviewed.
- Using the National Standards, the teacher will track your child's progress and achievement in reading, writing and maths throughout the school year, and across the curriculum.
- Doing well in reading, writing and maths gives children the skills and knowledge they need to do well in all curriculum areas at school.
- The curriculum also helps children develop capabilities for living and for life-long learning.