Hekia Parata’s failing children and why selling state houses will make it worse

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Teaching in a range of schools gives valuable insights into educational issues which are often ignored by politicians. One such issue is transience (where children change schools frequently).
I finished teaching last year at a school in a high-income area of Auckland and I had just two new names added to one of my class rolls during the year.

In stark contrast when I was teaching in South Auckland schools it was typical to have 28 students in a class at the start of the year and the same number on the roll at year’s end. However there would be at least 10 names crossed out with as many new names written in at the bottom.
In other words close to half the class would have moved out and a new half moved in during the year.

Teachers in schools work minor miracles every day to help plug the education gaps for these children on the move between schools. If it was just a few children it wouldn’t be a problem but transience has a huge impact on educational achievement for so many children.

It’s the difference between stable classes where students complete a 12 month course and unstable classes with fragmented learning for so many students.

The Education Review Office identified transience as a “barrier to student learning” as far back as 1997 and numerous studies and reports since then point to this as a significant factor in compounding the problems of poverty which drive disparity in educational opportunity.
Early last year the Child Poverty Action Group updated their research on transience and it paints a dismal but predictable picture of the problem. Transience is associated with high levels of private rental housing, insecure renting arrangements and low rates of home ownership.
A 2001 survey conducted by the New Zealand Principals Federation found that 47% of transient students in decile one schools moved because of housing as compared with 9% of decile 10 students.

Underlining the importance of housing an ERO survey last year showed 78% of secondary schools reported dealing with student problems of household poverty including poor housing or transience related to poverty.

The educational impact of insecure housing is profound. These transient students almost inevitably slip behind at school and will typically leave without qualifications and ultimately struggle to find decent employment. And because private rental housing and low rates of home ownership are a key factor in transience, Maori and Pasifika children are disproportionately affected.

So where are the government plans to stabilise these families so the children can get the best chance at education?

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Despite being the largest and most educationally vulnerable group of children which Minister of Education Hekia Parata says are failing at school the word transience never passes her lips. Instead of owning the problem she slags off schools, teachers and even teacher unions as failing these children.

And now the National government is determined to make matters worse.

In previous terms National slashed state house waiting lists and reduced state house tenure to three yearly reviewable tenancies. Now John Key says the government will sell up to 8,000 state houses to property investors and social housing providers.

This will force more families into insecure and increasingly expensive private rental housing.

All the evidence points to this being a recipe to increase transience and reduce educational opportunity for New Zealand’s most vulnerable children.

This is an inconvenient truth for the government which is living in denial of the awful impact of its housing policies on low-income families and the education of their children.

It seems the government hopes that because the child victims are predominantly brown and from the other side of the tracks that so-called middle New Zealand will ignore the issue and allow John Key to carry out his plans regardless.

It’s time we crash tackled these government attacks on our kids and stop Key’s housing policy in its tracks.

Come to the Tamaki Housing Group public meeting 10am at Bhakti Conference Centre, 11 Pleasant View Road, Panmure, Auckland.

17 COMMENTS

  1. Absolutely ! Bring jonky down ! Anarchy and chaos would be better than his flaccid quisling, corporate American fascism .

  2. All part of the plan of overall dumbing down of the working classes. “Who wants educated slaves”, a famous quote.

  3. Perhaps you had such a high turn over of pupils in your class in South Auckland not because of transience but because they did not find you a very talented and motivating teacher?

    • Pure nastiness. The poor cant afford to move from one school to another except out of absolute necessity.

    • Really Stephen? Do you think there is any merit in your comment at all?

      The reality is that transient children perform below less transient children in all areas, not just educational.

      The insecurity of housing has a major impact on their lives, and negatively impacts on the resilience of their families to other stress areas such as job security, finances, health etc.

      Taking such petty shots is an indication that you prefer playing games to actual discourse.

    • Stephen why don’t you go and do some actual research, this blaming of teachers working with our most vulnerable is utterly hideous, and that is being kind.
      Get your blinkers off and stop just blindly following the teacher bashing craze of the day (which, I suspect is as much an excuse to have a go at women as anything else).
      Before you start up I am not a teacher, never have been, never could have been but I do have respect for the tough job they have even in the better circumstances.

  4. It seems they are quite happy with the situation, more fodder for the prisons, more money for the corporations running the prisons, more finger pointing at the uneducated leaving school to hang out on the streets, who then get into trouble, who then end up in prison. I live on a pittance so i can provide a stable environment for schooling and social interaction for my children. Some people have no choice and have to move periodically, thank god i dont have too.
    when will people wake up and see that the ones creating these situations dont bloody care???

  5. “Despite being the largest and most educationally vulnerable group of children which Minister of Education Hekia Parata says are failing at school the word transience never passes her lips. Instead of owning the problem she slags off schools, teachers and even teacher unions as failing these children.”

    That’s because she’s a cretin and knows that she has the support of the numbers of other cretins who pontificate about schooling while not knowing about the reality of it. With David Seymour on board things are only likely to get more absurd with his hare-brained way of thinking.

  6. Its not an asset sale. Giving some houses to the Salvation Army (hopefully minus the god bothering bit) is not an asset sale. Get a bit real.

  7. Of course the right will see the solution as giving more of them more of our taxes through private contracts to work on fixing things. So they put people in this situation first by denying them some basic human rights and then ‘fix’the problems by giving the peoples taxes to private businesses to deal with it. Win win for the right and loss loss for the people.

  8. The conference John mentions is on the 21st of February. Details here:
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1501/S00098/state-housing-conference.htm

    If you are interested, please come as it is almost certain the proceeds from this sale of state assets will go to finance the next round of tax cuts for the already wealthy. I don’t think anyone is under the illusion it will actually help ease the shortage of affordable housing in Auckland in particular.

    And Stephen: I was involved in the CPAG research John refers to. Not a single school responded to our survey by saying that if only John Minto taught somewhere else the transience experienced by their students would miraculously vanish. As the meme says: try not to be a dick.

  9. Good Blog John,

    We are fortunate that you are still p repared to speak up for those with no voice.

    My 70 yrs an this planet;

    We are living during the end of the golden age of restoration after WW2.

    And clearly the variance of opinions on this string shows graphically the end is signalled by the right wing suppositories now installed in every administration to push their agenda seen with the comments here to dispose of any care of those less fortunate.

    This while their system is designed to the killing off the poor and less fortunate without care or responsibility.

    Like before the fall of Rome don’t you think.

    Bring on the revolution and downfall of greedy evil Keyism.

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