In the spirit of Christmas the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) is continuing its commitment to help John Key with his holiday reading and has carefully selected themes he can use to reflect on the past year and the year to come.
The latest book is an introduction to the work of Charles Darwin, who was probably the world’s greatest scientist.
Like Darwin, PPTA believes evidence matters. There is strong global evidence of what works in successful education systems and what doesn’t - frittering away taxpayer money on an experiment with charter schools isn’t one of the features of top education systems.
15 December 2011
Dear Prime Minister - Please follow the education evidence rather than the ideology.
Dear Prime Minister
I am sorry that the book we are gifting to you today is not a golfing manual but PPTA believes politicians ought not to treat education as if it were a sporting fixture.
The book I am sending today is an introduction to the work of Charles Darwin. The reason for this choice is that charter schools elsewhere have been used as a mechanism for handing control of schools over to churches, mosques, temples, synagogues and their new age equivalents, regardless of good scientific evidence against this.
The Education Act of 1877 introduced secular education in New Zealand, basically because the churches had shown themselves to be more interested in proselytising than educating children. In establishing education for all New Zealanders that was "compulsory, secular and free" (and implicitly, fair and equal), that Act became the cornerstone of New Zealand's prosperity and development as a nation.
Instead of building on the wisdom of our forebears we seem hell-bent on trialling initiatives from a country that is in national decline. Thomas Friedman, author of the book "The World is Flat", describes the terminal state of the American education system and observes that American economic survival is dependent almost entirely on poaching top science, technology and engineering graduates from other countries. He warns Americans that ICT developments mean that these people no longer need to uproot themselves for the benefit of Americans and that that will have dire consequences for their economy. Friedman blames American complacency about the extreme disparity between schools for this state of affairs.
But back to Charles Darwin. As the book notes, his achievement was not strictly the "invention" of evolution; what he did was systematically and rigorously provide indisputable evidence for an idea that was already in existence. PPTA believes there is very strong global evidence of what works in successful education systems and equally strong evidence of which countries are nothing but also-rans. Is it too much to ask New Zealand follow the evidence rather than the ideology?
Yours sincerely
Robin Duff
PRESIDENT
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