Whanganui and Rangitīkei school leavers on future plans, Covid-19 and facing modern issues

Rangitikei College leavers (from left) Dominic True, Jacob Douglas, KJ Proctor and Iris Collie have varying after-school plans.

As Year 13 students head into their final term at secondary school, Olivia Reid sits down with Whanganui High School’s head students, Toby Clark, Alice Quigley, Elias Currin and Aarna Marwah, and Rangitikei College students Dominic True, Jacob Douglas, Iris Collie and KJ Proctor. They talk about their experiences at school and give some insight into the next generation of adults.

Despite some feelings of nostalgia, the students are looking forward to getting into post-school life.

“I feel really excited. Every now and again I’m a little bit scared because it’s the future and it’s uncertainty but I know that it’s going to be okay because so many people have gone through the same process and they’re having a great time,” Alice said.

Each student was clear on what they hoped to study when they left school. Alice and Elias will do psychology, Aarna will study law and arts, and Toby plans to enrol in electronic engineering.

The Rangitīkei students have a range of post-school plans with Dominic heading for the Air Force, Jacob taking courses in fabrication, engineering and design at UCOL, Iris studying political science and KJ heading to tourism college to become a flight attendant.

“I think everyone has a little bit of apprehension but I think everybody is ready to move on in their own way. Whether that’s university or a gap year or straight into work, everybody seems to have a plan,” Toby said.

Whanganui High School head students (from left) Alice Quigley, Toby Clark, Aarna Marwah and Elias Currin with principal Martin McAllen (centre). Photo / Olivia Reid

The students from both schools said there was a mostly even split in post-school plans between gap years, courses, university and entering the workforce.

With the support of a vocational department, open day trips and university visits, the eight students felt their schools had provided them with adequate preparation to make early career decisions.

The schools’ vocational training included an option for students to build a house on school property with AGC Training - which KJ participated in to earn NCEA credits.

Dominic, as part of the school’s Gateway options, took aviation lessons to help prepare him to enter the Air Force as an engineer.

The Whanganui students reported most of their peers would remain in school until the end of Year 13 whereas the Rangitīkei students said many of their peers left school in Year 12, with most moving straight into apprenticeships, courses or jobs.

The Whanganui High School students did not feel Covid-19 had too much effect on their studies; being in Years 9 and 10, the lockdowns did not create later academic issues.

But Alice said it was not the same for all her peers.

“I know other people who really struggled during lockdown, and it was a difficult time for them being in their home environment, whereas some people thrived with that.”

She felt that although they were not impacted academically, the pandemic took away some opportunities.

“The after-effects of Covid inconvenienced a lot of things in terms of sports involvements, events were cancelled, trips were cancelled.”

However, the students from Rangitikei College felt the effects of Covid continued to affect their studies even after the lockdowns, due to it being a holistic-style school with one-on-one teacher-to-student contact prioritised.

“We were all taken out for two years and had our class time disrupted, so what that resulted in was us heading into Year 11 with much less strong relationships with our teachers, and horrible study habits,” Iris said.

According to Education Counts, educational cracks caused by Covid-19 continue to be revealed with only 19% of principals feeling their school had recovered from Covid-19, down from 37% in 2021.

Toby credited their success through the pandemic to their teachers.

“It was very impressive how quickly they adapted to the situation and how quickly they managed to recover and reframe their teaching to work for as many students as possible.”

The Rangitīkei students believed changes were needed in New Zealand’s education system, but they were not convinced the current Government would fix the issues.

Iris voiced concerns about the Government’s education reforms which her fellow students agreed with.

“They’re responding to a long-term problem with short-term solutions,” she said.

“They’re not coming from a place of wanting to help students, they’re coming from a place of realising they didn’t really understand the situation they inherited from the past government or trying to make good headlines for themselves.”

The Rangitikei College students had growing concerns for future job security with public sector job cuts, an unstable tourism industry and school budget cuts.

However, despite global issues such as climate change, political uncertainty, financial crisis and war, the students were positive about the future for themselves and their peers.

“I feel quite confident in our cohort as a whole, people that are our age,” Alice said.

“I think there’s no one else more prepared for battling with some of the biggest challenges. Our generation is a lot more open-minded than in the past and there’s so much that we can do.”

Dominic said Covid had made students “quite resilient and more flexible in terms of how they can adapt and respond to changes”.

Aarna recognised some of the possible anxieties.

“Regardless if we’re scared or not, it’s going to happen so I think you may as well put your best into it and look at the bright side.”

Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.