Posted by: Tom Haig
on 01, May, 2013
Tagged in:
Youth guarantee ,
Teachers Council ,
MOE ,
Ministry of Education ,
John Key ,
John Banks ,
Hekia Parata ,
education politics ,
education policy ,
education ,
Christchurch schools ,
change ,
Catherine Isaac ,
Bulk Funding ,
Buildings ,
Bill English
It was widely agreed that Parata had a rough year in 2012 and was lucky to keep her portfolio – albeit now saddled with a mini-van load of associate ministers who are doing most of the work.
Despite supposedly being the Ronald Reagan of the National Party she alienated the sector, baffled the public, struggled in the House and burned through her staff.
Posted by: PPTAweb
on 07, Mar, 2013
On Friday John Banks announced that he had appointed the board to approve applications for charter schools.
The chair of the board is charter school working group chairwoman and former Act president Catherine Isaac.
This despite the fact the charter school working group has never produced a public report on why New Zealand should consider this education model.
This despite the fact that the Education and Science Select Committee has not reported back to parliament on the legislation.
This despite the thousands of informed submissions from New Zealanders of all persuasions that express serious concerns, about the effect on our children and our education system, should charter schools be introduced.
Recently I came across an oral submission to the Social Services Select Committee, from Caritas, on the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill.
I can relate - to the sense of despair and loss of democratic process in New Zealand - and quote:
"In 25 years of making submissions , I have never felt more disillusioned and discouraged about participating in the Select Committee process. The role of the Select Committee is not simply to rubberstamp decisions of the Executive, or to provide some kind of legal proofreading of minor details of legislation
Constitutionally the role of the Legislature is to oversee the power of the Executive branch of Government. In a country without an Upper House of Parliament or the judicial oversight of legislation, this Select Committee process provides the one of the on ly opportunities we have in Aotearoa New Zealand for formal review of policy and legislation. This is a significant duty that you have taken on.
Caritas does not expect our arguments and perspectives to prevail each time we are invited to write or speak to you. We recognise we are participating in a democratic process, in which a plurality of opinions, perspectives and experiences shape and determine policy and legislation.
However, we do not expect to feel that the contribution we make is simply incidental to the real process of decision making." |
And so as citizens of New Zealand, voters and taxpayers, as an organisation that represents thousands of teachers - like Caritas we can only ask "If anyone is still interested in seeking our advice on having their voices heard, what do you think we should tell them?"
Posted by: PPTAweb
on 25, Feb, 2013
The people who want our children to have charter schools had a little get together in the weekend. They are called the ACT party - not polling very well - but the current government seem to quite like some of their ideas.
Posted by: PPTAweb
on 21, Nov, 2012
Dear Ms Longstone,
Some of us who have been involved in educating students for many decades in NZ cannot understand the recent attack on NZ's education system.
It is obvious you have been appointed by some who feel that you can make some progress in bringing NZers to heel as this government is not prepared to spend money on education.
The comments by Education Ministry CEO Lesley Longstone that the NZ education system is not world class were not made in a vacuum.
The comments come in the wake of imposed policies on (a) national standards (b) charter schools and (c) the abortive attempt to increase class sizes – all of which run counter to the equity outcomes that Longstone now professes to be dead keen on promoting.
I think we can add the attack on struggling Christchurch schools to this list.
Unlike England, many members of this government and perhaps some of your advisers, NZers have a long history of egalitarianism.
To attack the fact that you say education is not equitable for all in NZ, when our education has unfailingly demonstrated its robustness even under the extreme attacks from governments is folly on your part. No-one believes you for a moment.
Just as in England, public school educated people feel that their education system is the best ever, so do most kiwis.
Posted by: Tom Haig
on 25, Oct, 2012
Tagged in:
teaching ,
stupidity ,
Mike Feinberg ,
learning ,
KIPP ,
John Banks ,
charters ,
charter schools ,
Charter school working group ,
Catherine Isaac ,
ACT Party ,
ACT
Reading the start of Hard Times in the library last weekend, I had to stop myself accosting the nearest person with how strikingly relevant it is to the educational debate today.
In a miserable class room in a northern English industrial town a school inspector and a new teacher drill a class of youngsters with facts in the modern, 1850s, method. Exaggerated as they are in Dickens’ inimitable style, Misters Gradgrind and M’Choakumchild are recognisable still as archetypes of the ‘filling a bucket’ style of educator. Dickens describes the teacher “…looking into all the vessels ranged before him, one after another… from thy boiling store that shalt fill each jar brim full [and] kill outright the robber Fancy lurking within…” and so on.
So, what’s so exciting about this?
First, it’s that, even in 1854, this style of education was quite obviously mocked and criticised by Dickens, and presumably other people too. There’s this mythologising that goes on, from educational consultants and people on TED talks in particular, that the twentieth century industrial model of education was about pumping kids through schools and filling their heads in a regimented manner and rhythm, and that we have to change this because of the ‘new economy’ or ‘new forms of knowledge’ or whatever. What nonsense. The tension between education as a personal, holistic, creative endeavour versus the acquisition of knowledge, at least reaches back to the mid nineteenth century, and I suspect much earlier indeed.
And the relation of this to charter schools is simply that Mr Gradgrind sounds like a perfect candidate to run a KIPP school. “A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations… With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket... ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature…” this sounds like a man ideally fitted for the ‘no excuses’ extreme-accountability regime of the (commonly known as) Kids in Prison Programme.
