NZ students are struggling in core subjects such as reading and maths. Photo / 123rf
OPINION:
New Zealand’s once world-leading school system is in trouble. Literacy and numeracy rates continue to decline across the board, leading many to question where we have gone wrong. A 2020 Unicef report found over a third of our 15-year-olds did not have basic proficiency in literacy and maths. It’s one of a series of international and national reports which have shown New Zealand students are falling behind in the core subjects of reading, writing, maths and science.
Read the full story: Making the Grade: New Zealand’s struggling school education system - how we can do better.
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Education is vitally important for us all in so many ways.
National’s plan today to ensure the basics are taught is a good start.
There is so much ideology embedded in people in education now, it will be very hard to turn the Titanic around, but we must start.
Labour has overseen a terrible degradation of education, and some parents just do not care about getting their kids to school.
Professor Rata hit the nail on the head, but Labour just ignored her request.
Stephen H
Large teaching rooms with 60-plus kids do not help kids learn. The environment is stressful for a lot of kids.
Apparently, collaborative teaching spaces were trialled in the ‘70s and ‘80s and failed then.
It’s about the NZ Government and Ministry of Education trying to save money, and cramming as many kids into classes as possible reduces child and teacher ratios and kids end up failing.
Catherine B
Dump everything in schools except the three ‘R’s and computer studies.
Once kids are proficient at these core basic foundations of education, expand to include science (all disciplines - physics, biology, chemistry), history etc.
Then the extras can be built on these.
Raven D
[There are] teachers who literally have no clue. My daughter told me some time ago that they were all made to lie down and do breathing exercises.
They were to think of dark blue breathing in, and light blue breathing out.
I took it upon myself to teach my kids arithmetic, grammar, cursive writing and how to use dictionaries and encyclopedias. They rarely had homework.
It will only get worse in the years to come.
Chris K
It’s obvious from the comments in this post that there is dissatisfaction with our so-called education system.
Both politicians and bureaucrats have failed to deal with the problem either, because they don’t see it as a problem or [think] that it is just too much trouble.
Surely it’s time for the citizens themselves to take over at least some control of what is taught to their children.
Readers may have read in other contexts that when there is a problem, the best people to solve it are those closest to it - the ones most affected by it.
So I suggest:
Denis M
It is time to learn from other countries like Singapore.
Their students’ success in literacy, maths and science is mainly due to parental/personal responsibilities, successful government policies, having well-trained, well-paid and qualified teachers, a good learning environment, and sticking to the true and tested systems like the Cambridge GCE exams etc.
Albert C
In reply to Albert C: I have friends who put their kids through the Cambridge system as their school offered them the choice between that and NCEA.
They are so thankful they did, as the difference in outcomes in learning between the two systems is, in their words: black and white.
Both their kids went through university and constantly reported that many of their classmates who were products of the NCEA system would struggle with the very basics required of a university education.
I do believe universities themselves have been saying much the same thing for years about the results of an NCEA qualification.
Ross H
Forget all the social engineering initiatives and focus on maths, science, reading, writing, some history, economics, physical education and social skills. The rest can be picked up as options in the last couple of years at secondary school.
Teachers need to be paid on merit to attract the best people into the profession and weed out the worst performers.
Achievements need to be measured and incentivised.
Parents need to be held to account for their children’s non-attendance.
Charter schools need to be allowed to operate.
Streaming needs to be kept so all levels can have their needs met.
Phiphi P
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