Headline: Speech to Wellington Kindergartens Association
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
It’s almost six months since I took up my current role as Labour’s Education spokesperson and during that time I’ve had the opportunity to visit schools, early childhood centres, and other education providers throughout the country.
I’ve been constantly impressed by the passion and dedication of the teachers that I’ve met, and the creativity and innovation that thrives within our education system, often despite, rather than as a result of, directives from the central government.
As teachers, your commitment to ensuring that every Kiwi kid gets the best possible start in life is truly inspiring, and I want to offer a genuine vote of thanks for all that you do for New Zealand’s future generations.
Over the last few months I’ve often drawn on the words of Labour’s very first Minister of Education, the Rt Hon Peter Fraser.
Fraser was a true visionary who transformed the debate about education in this country. To quote him in his own words:
“The government’s objective, broadly expressed, is that all persons, whatever their level of ability, whether they live in town or country, have a right as citizens to a free education of the kind for which they are best fitted and to the fullest extent of their powers.”
There’s a lot in that quote to ponder. When Fraser spoke of an education system that catered for people of all abilities, did he envisage a system that is becoming increasingly focused on a narrow range of targets?
Would Fraser have accepted, as we are asked to accept today, that every piece of learning of value can be broken down into a measurable, bite-sized unit?
I somehow doubt that, given he also remarked:
“Schools that are to cater for the whole population must offer courses that are as rich and varied as are the needs and abilities of the children who enter them.”
Peter Fraser and the first Labour government transformed the education system, introducing universal, comprehensive secondary education.
Over six decades later, it was another Labour government that made the next big leap forward, formally recognising the enormous value of quality early childhood education.
The early years of a child’s learning make a significant difference to the way they develop and go on to learn throughout their lives. Getting it right at this vital stage will build the lifelong foundations of success, not only for our children, but also for New Zealand.
Under the last Labour government early childhood education was recognised as an integral part of the system, and for the first time a universal entitlement to 20 hours free early childhood education was introduced for all 3 and 4 year olds.
Labour recognised then, as we do now, that if we are to get the most from early childhood education, it needs to be delivered by teachers who meet and maintain the same professional standards as school teachers.
Working collaboratively with all those involved in early childhood education, including teachers, parents, researchers and supporters, the Labour government was able to produce Ngä Huarahi Arataki – Pathways to the Future, a 10 year plan for early childhood education in New Zealand.
It wasn’t a government agenda mandated from on high, it was a plan developed and owned by everyone. Together, we were going to ensure that every child in New Zealand had access to quality early childhood education.
In his foreword to the plan, then Minister of Education Trevor Mallard remarked:
“If we are to build a strong future for this country, I believe we must firmly establish early childhood education as the cornerstone of our education system. Our social, educational and economic health can only benefit from efforts and resources focused on young New Zealanders. We cannot leave to chance the quality and accessibility of early childhood education.”
In the years that followed, we made enormous progress. Clear targets saw the number of registered early childhood teachers more than double. Participation continued to increase.
Can we measure in quantifiable terms the value this focus on quality and participation has had? No, not really.
The simple reality is the benefits of investment in the earliest years of a child’s life often aren’t truly appreciated until many years later.
We must never allow the value of our education system to be judged purely by what can be measured through achievement statistics.
Research shows that for every dollar invested in ECE, at least $11 is returned in long-term benefits to the country. Quality ECE lays the foundation for later learning, developing cognitive skills, and developing resilience and self-esteem.
Two cornerstone policies for Labour in early childhood education were the introduction of 20 hours free for 3 and 4 year olds, and our goal to have fully qualified teachers in all centres.
We remain committed to those policies.
I believe that the current government’s decisions to drop the word ‘free’ from the 20 hours policy, relax teacher qualification targets, and reduce funding for centres with fully qualified teachers, were the wrong ones.
The current government see early childhood education primarily as a tool to promote labour market participation by parents. We have a much broader appreciation of the benefits than that.
Over the past decade, the early childhood education sector has come a very long way, but our work is far from done.
We still have big challenges in participation to address. Research shows that having access to quality education in early childhood offers the greatest benefits for the very children who are least likely to be attending (children from low socio-economic backgrounds).
Yet too many Kiwi kids still don’t have access to quality early childhood education. We need to work together to ensure that it is available to all who need it.
The current funding model creates plenty of incentives for new for-profit services to establish themselves in middle to upper income areas, while some of our most economically deprived areas continue to struggle with under-provision.
That’s something the next Labour government will work to address.
We will work collaboratively, in partnership with you, to develop and articulate a vision for the next 10 years in early childhood education.
That will be our approach across the board. Education is a team effort and I am committed to making decisions based on best practice and best evidence.
I’ve often been asked how we can take politics out of the classroom. Is it possible to have a bi-partisan approach to education policy?
A bi-partisan approach will be possible when all parties in parliament make a commitment to making decisions based on what’s best for education, rather than what’s easy to sell politically.
Greater consensus will be reached when we acknowledge that those working in education are some of the most committed, passionate professionals we’ll ever come across, and rather than dismiss their views as simply patch protection, we embrace their expertise and wisdom.
Rather than starting from the presumption that there is something inherently wrong with our education system and it needs to be ‘fixed’, I prefer to adopt the attitude that our challenge is taking a very good education system and making it even better.
We need to redefine what success in education means.
Success in education is about making sure every child achieves their full potential.
Success means every school and early childhood centre is a great one.
Success means valuing great teachers.
And success means recognising and celebrating diversity and difference.
Schools and early childhood centres should collaborate, teachers should be part of collaborative professional networks, and the sink-or-swim mentality that has often pervaded education policy in recent decades needs to change.
One of the most destructive things this government could do to quality education in New Zealand is introduce so-called ‘performance pay’ based on a narrow range of achievement measures.
If the alarm bells aren’t already ringing, they should be.
When the Treasury talks about setting “clear performance expectations” and in the same breath talks about increasingly “flexibility for principals to incentivise and reward effective practice by teachers” I automatically become suspicious.
Collaboration, not competition, is the way of the future.
It’s also vitally important that we acknowledge some of the wider socio-economic issues that have such a big impact on our education system.
While research is very clear that quality teaching is the biggest in-school, or in your case in-centre, determinant of student success, we should never lose sight of the bigger picture.
When I asked SPANZ President Patrick Walsh at a select committee hearing recently what he thought the biggest thing the government could to lift student achievement was he replied implement a living wage. I nearly jumped for joy.
To quote another former Labour Prime Minister, Walter Nash:
“Men and women are not free to develop their own souls, to express their own individual personalities, to contribute according to their individual capacities to the world’s cultural inheritance – they are not free to do any of these things so long as the fact and fear of economic insecurity confronts them”
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that economic inequality is a major contributing factor to educational inequality.
Eliminating child poverty has to be a central plank of any plan to improve educational outcomes.
Connecting social service providers so that kids welfare doesn’t fall through the cracks will also be vital.
Thirteen years ago the new Labour government invited you on a journey. A journey that empowered you all to map out an exciting future for early childhood education in New Zealand.
Today I’m asking you to come on another journey with us. We need to reclaim the future. We need to work together to reject the standardisation of childhood, to embrace creativity and fun, and celebrate all the things that are great about being a Kiwi kid in the 21st century.
These are challenging and exciting times to be working in education.
Thank you for the enormous contribution you’re making to the country’s future prosperity.
I’m looking forward to working with you in the coming months to develop, refine, and articulate a positive alternative approach to education in New Zealand.
I’m now happy to take your questions.
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