Danyl McLauchlan tells us what we all knew – public education is broken
Danyl McLauchlan tells us what we all knew – public education is broken.
“In 2022, the ministry ran a pilot of its new NCEA reading and literacy standards: only a third of students passed the writing component. In decile 1 schools – those with students from the lowest socio-economic areas – the pass rate was just 2%. Something has gone wrong, and some experts are scrutinising the changes made in the early 2000s and suggesting the educational approach they embedded is failing students, turning a once-successful system into a wasteland.”
In working out what has gone wrong some critics point to the trend towards “student-centric learning”. The analysis of Nina Hood of the University of Auckland is reported: “It can incentivise teachers and schools to provide short-term enjoyment rather than a longer-term focus on what it means to be educated. The basic problem, she believes, is that there’s now very little knowledge content in the curriculum. This is by design: teachers are empowered to determine lesson content for themselves. But the result is that students across different schools and different classrooms are learning very different things – and in some cases, not learning much at all – leading to wildly divergent outcomes.”
Hood also says that schools and teachers are now having to deal with huge socio-economic factors, but aren’t being properly equipped for this role: “Schools are being put in the position where they are responsible for dealing with the majority of society’s problems… There’s an argument that schools are the best places for that to happen because they’re one of the few community institutions we have left. But at the moment they are not resourced to play that role.”
Talking to many parents, there is a growing sense of frustration and resentment towards teachers that I’ve never heard in NZ before.
There is a real sense that our kids are not getting ahead educationally and that school has morphed into a baby sitting for our kids feelings.
Gen Xers and Boomers grew up in an educational philosophy that stated ‘Be the best you can be’. The idea was you were in a constant competition with yourself to perform with personal excellence in the field you did best in.
It unfortunately also used Bell Curve graph ruthlessness that ensured 50% failed regardless of whether they actually passed. That created generations of lost potential. Instead of reform the Belle Curve mentality, we went completely the other way with Tomorrow’s Schools in dumping all the responsibility onto local communities without any of the resourcing.
That manifested a completely different philosophy.
Millennials and under were brought up in an educational philosophy of ‘everyone is special’.
You can quickly see the problem.
Schools seem to have been given carte blanche to define educational achievement as they like with the most important factor being the feelings of the child.
It seems to have produced a brittle generation who require constant nurturing and cuddles rather than stoic self reliance and independence of critical thinking agency.
Teachers deserve 4 day weeks + more pay + extra resources + a teacher’s aid in each class + provide bonded scholarships with accomodation for new teachers!
Teachers work miracles with our kids, and as much as I roll my eyes at what the kids are getting taught these days, I’m still in awe of what NZ Teachers can achieve with the little they have.
Too often our teachers are being left to clean up the inequality that the Government generates and all they are doing is teaching basic socialisation skills to children driven feral from poverty.
There are few silver bullets in social policy, education is one of them.
We need to nurture an education environment that respects Teachers and resources them properly because our Schools are central hubs within our community that can and must be utilised and supported more.
Schools need to be used after hours for adult education classes that we should be funding.
Schools should be used to create gardens and farms for local food security and to use in free breakfasts and lunches.
We need to use our schools as entry points for counsellors and social services for the wider community.
We need to fully fully fully fund our public education rather than inject false competition models or new bureaucratic structures and we need to ensure a central curriculum of math, science, physical education and critical thinking are providing the tools for our kids to learn.
That takes far more money and it takes a Government with the courage to tax the fucking rich more so that excellent public education continues to be the egalitarian pillar of New Zealand!
What is being offered up by ACT is privatisation in drag.
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Mass public education has always been problematic. For various reasons, not least because it was set up way back to serve the needs of the capitalist system. No doubt about it, smart and disciplined individuals are needed to take the lead whatever economic system. It would be true to say though that not everyone is cut from the same cloth. Nature, nurture, whatever. Anyway, back in the day there was a place for everyone irrespective of how they did at school. That seems to be changing.
If the data is correct, and interpretations of that data correct, the erosion of basic skills must be a concern. You gotta be able to do basic math and be literate in today’s world. The more the better if you have critical literacy and can apply those basic math skills to everyday living. But one criticism of falling skill levels is that current measurement only measures what can be counted, so that leaves a whole lot of learning that never gets recognized. That is, it never gets counted in the data. So to say kids today are falling behind is only half true. What’s probably more critical is school attendance and the relevance of the curriculum for the 21st C.
The bigger picture is that learning is lifelong, and lifewide. Killing off funding for community education a decade ago because it was seen not to have an economic outcome was not a good move. But that’s probably another story.
Our education system conti ues to languish in the dark ages. NACT fiddling will only take us back further.I have come to the conclusion that we need to completely reshape our process so that it emulates one of the most successful in the world – that of Finland. To those who are interested there is any amount of information freely available on the internet.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2401/S00017/on-charter-schools-and-the-ghahraman-blame-machine.htm
Gordon Campbell writing about nz charter schools and I feel we have managed to find the sludge at the bottom of the barrel. There is no reason that charter schools or the like may not be good. But ACT’s Rodney I think managed to actually wipe one that was on a good path getting scatty non-attenders to learn something and do something organised, when ACT came along and told, I think Four Avenues in Christchurch, that they should not be taking their pupils to a golf driving range as part of their sport curriculum appropriate for a school without buildings or grounds.
No problem with private charter schools, it’s the use of taxpayers money to return an investment to its private owners which is the issue. Money that could have been spent upgrading public schools.
Nasc You miss the point – education that aids the young or old person, to an understanding of social community and balance and mode, also teaching skills to support themselves through their life while doing useful stuff, is what is needed. People who don’t learn that and how to respect their own standing and that of other people’s, is injurious to the wellbeing of society. We see results of warped education when viewing power blocs USA and UK – the ones closest to us.
What’s gone wrong is lazy/busy working parents. This is another symptom of our broken country. My mum taught me to read before I can actually remember: 2 or 3 years old. Now kids are going to school and don’t know how to tie their shoes! The generation of TV educated children…. Parents either don’t think it’s their responsability or because of house prices/cost of living, both parents are working just to keep their heads above the rising waters of the ever inflating economy because of, mainly, the property hustle that has consumed NZ.
@Chris Grove Better to say it’s the system and effects of society than pointing the finger straight at parents. We are malleable us humans, and the combination of poverty, television falsity, political falsity, peer behaviour, advertising and PR propaganda; the gap between what we sort of understand is what NZ is and is about and the reality of pushing people around like pieces on a draught board, is overlooked when top of the mind annoyance gets aired. Deeper understanding along your further comments opens the door to view the accumulating difficulties.
Hipkins unfortunately and no doubt very reluctantly ended up being the mediocre minister for most matters while Ardern was doing whatever Ardern was doing. However it’s nonsense to blame Hipkins for deteriorating education over decades. The Ministry of Education runs the show and perhaps scrutiny should start at 1 The Terrace and the apparent cumulative non-delivery of basics. A good result would be having experienced teachers paid more than junior ministry staff. Some unions are better than others.
You’re not wrong. Friend of mine was the head of science Department in a decile three high school. His daughter worked for a government ministry in a junior capacity, and earned far more than her dad. I was gobsmacked when I found out how much she actually earned compared to him.
Looking at Pakistan trying to bring democracy, I came across this – an excerpt from an Introduction in a JStor publication.
The Army and Democracy
AQIL SHAH
Copyright Date: 2014
Published by: Harvard University Press
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wpr4x
INTRODUCTION
(pp. 1-30)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wpr4x.5
The third wave of democracy that swept military authoritarian regimes out of power from Latin America to Asia in the 1970s and 1980s heralded the declining political role of the armed forces. Like militaries in the Middle East and Burma, however, Pakistan’s military bucked that trend. In fact, Pakistan has been one of the main military authoritarian exceptions to the global pattern of democratic resurgence.¹ The country experienced its latest military coup in 1999, which was followed by eight years of military government, a situation that led one prominent scholar of democracy to wonder whether Pakistan was reversing the third…
I simple-minded, did not realise that changes in society went in waves or cycles. Why were we never taught basic facts like this as a part of our secondary education? Is there a determined attempt to keep us infantile in our beliefs, after all these great thinkers have put forward strong theses about their disciplines! Is higher education a fraud, a falsity to give the appearance that nations promote higher understanding? It leaves ordinary people with unreal visions, where they rise up in good intention, inspired by ideas, only to be slaughtered by cold, callous orthodoxy?
What do we actually know for a fact? Quora has discussions and around this there is plenty. https://www.quora.com/Does-knowledge-of-a-fact-differ-from-knowledge-of-the-reason-for-this-same-fact
We don’t get enough education to be able to think on these terms so we are in a vulnerable position to those with ‘higher’ education, not being able to argue at the same level as they do though knowing factual stuff ourselves. So end up shouting and throwing cowpats.
Parents are going to have retake responsibility for their children’s education, if they want them to get any. The system is too broken to do what it could once be relied on to do. Kids whose learning is supported at home may get through. God help the financially stressed or underprivileged.
And in the meantime both the rapacity of the Right, and the fratricidal bullshit of the Left, will go unchecked. Bad times coming for NZ – shit leadership, no planning, the market, or more likely Malthus left to sort it out. Won’t be pretty.
Nonsense! The most important factor is not the feelings of the child! It’s the reputation of the school! And why not? There’s gold in them there hills, approximately 4.8 billion worth. It’s called the foreign fee paying student market. And if a few low decile never do wells need to be permanently (and illegally) excluded, that’s a small price to pay. If you can’t see that, then perhaps you too a in need to be bullied, humiliated, and brutalised. They’re fucking monsters and ruining far too many children’s lives. But hey, not the best ones. 10 to 1 this make it into the comments
The teachers and their union are the problem. They bemoan having to take on more of societies ills but continue to promote and vote for socialist government that create these ills.