In the panel on a knowledge at the hui in October 2018 on What an Alternative and Progressive Trade Strategy for New Zealand Melanie Webber looked at challenges confronting internationalised education.
Melanie is Junior Vice-President, Post-Primary Teachers Association
I’m a classroom teacher, just down the road. I come to this from a slightly different perspective from people who deal with this all the time. I deal with education in my classroom and the impact that it has there. When we’re looking at how to resist these things it’s about the ability of us as a collective to speak out against it. That’s where we are really fortunate in NZ with our really strong unions in education. That has enabled us to stand together. When the Employment Relations Act happened we managed to maintain our collective agreement, which means we are able to mobilise and organise teachers against these things, to stand up and have a united voice. That’s been hugely powerful for us in NZ education in resisting a lot of what’s happened. We don’t win every battle but we are able to get out there and speak about it. For example, last year with the bulk funding of education we got together with NZEI and spoke against that. Similarly, for us it’s about standing up and saying this isn’t OK. There’s a teaching technique called the ‘broken record’, when you say something over and over again, and when someone comes back to you, you say it again. And for me it’s to say that education is a public good. Education is a human right. It’s not a service. It shouldn’t be monetised. Education is a human right and a public good. That’s what we need to stick to because that’s very hard to argue against.
I’m also thinking about the ways in which these agreements seek to make it OK for corporations to make profit out of education. So it’s thinking about that global education market and the idea that education is worth $6 to $8 trillion and we are trying to make profit out of it. It’s the $4.5 billion that international students bring into NZ. This is an area that really worries me.
We see increasing numbers of international students in schools. These sorts of agreements seek to protect the rights of us to sell our education. What I don’t see happening always is the question of ‘is this the best thing’ for the students, for the schools they are coming into. I see students being treated in a way like cattle, something to be sold, something you are competing for in the guise of globalisation and this being a good thing. I don’t think we ask enough what this means for the kids here on the ground. We hear people say it’s a global society and we must bring people across. But really we are bringing them in for purposes of money, to subsidise the underfunding of our education system, and we are treating them as cash cows, and it’s not OK. That’s what’s happening here in NZ, and we are protecting our right to do that.
On an international level I worry about the increased privatisation. In the US for profit universities were 2% in the 1970s and went to 9.1% in 2009. Then that trend goes global. Organisations like Bridge Academy that are low-cost private schools are moving into those markets and taking away the rights of people to develop their own curriculum, to value local knowledge. You have this standardised curriculum coming in that’s about skills and competencies. What these students are actually learning is being measured by these same companies. It’s hugely problematic. For example, Bridge Academy initially started building their own schools, but this broke into the profitability of it. So they went to governments and said we can provide the education that goes on in your buildings, let us do that. It’s very tempting for governments to advocate responsibility to the private market.
The problem with these trade agreements is, because they protect the rights of these corporations above the human right to a free public education, once you have allowed these businesses into education in your country it is very hard to get them out. You are going to have to pay to get them out. This is why we need to be aware of what’s happening, especially in terms of assessment systems, which are increasingly globalised. Making sure that we don’t let them in. Once we have allowed them in, which may seem simpler or easier, it’s very hard to get them out.
Sandra Grey (chair): Give one solution each where we can make sure we are sharing knowledge and data on our terms and we are thinking outside the current paradigm, and making sure we don’t lose our power and sovereignty.
Melanie: Ban all for-profit companies for education. Education is a public good. It is not a service and it shouldn’t be commodified. There was a question about how the Western education system has entrenched the knowledge and power of matauranga Maori and tangata whenua. That’s something we are doing internationally and allowing to happen with these for-profit companies. The Bridge Academy that I mentioned before are so evil. The curriculum is developed in the US, it’s developed by secondary graduates using I-pads and scripted lessons. How do you validate the local knowledge in the countries they are operating in. Uganda has thrown them out. The standardisation of education erodes our ability to critique systems. It damages our competence to deal with really complex global problems. This is what Carrie’s talking about. It is hugely problematic and we simply cannot trust for-profit companies in education.
Comment: I want to step away from the digital and discuss institutions. I want to draw a comparison with the new early childhood centres that pop up everywhere for profit. One thing that is very important about our institutions is the land. As we see with Unitech, $50 million of land sold off. The schools are seen as great areas of land. What is that land about? It was put there for the wellbeing of the children’s learning and for the future. Some was gifted Maori land. In areas like Auckland, children or students go out and pick up their phones and are tied into this data propaganda because they have nowhere to go and play, whatever age. It’s also seen as a huge profit. I understand other institutions are doing the same as Unitech.
