Parents at St Cuthbert’s, a private school in Auckland, think so because they’re backing the school’s decision to drop NCEA Level 1.
A quick reminder how the NCEA system works. In Year 11 (which is the old Form 5) the kids can do NCEA Level 1 (which, if you need to think about it in the old ways - is the equivalent of School Cert).
And then in Year 12 (which used to be Form 6), they do Level 2. And then in Year 13 (the old Form 7), and they do NCEA Level 3.
So St Cuthberts in Auckland is ditching Level 1 and is going to be doing its own thing in Year 11, and then its students will pick up NCEA in Years 12 and 13.
But is this just posturing by this private school? Because NCEA Level 1 is actually voluntary. Not all schools have to do it. For example, Lincoln High School in Canterbury doesn't do Level 1. I’m not sure if it’s never done Level 1 - but I know it hasn’t done it for a number of years. Because it’s voluntary.
And so what St Cuthbert’s is doing is not unusual at all. Like Lincoln High, it’s choosing not to do something that it’s not obliged to do.
Nevertheless, the parents at St Cuthbert’s are right behind it.
One, who has a daughter who is at intermediate age and will be going into Year 9 next year, says she had been looking at sending her daughter to a state school for her high school years, but isn’t so sure now.
She says: “I had always thought my kids might go to university in Australia and it just concerns me that they might turn up and be so far behind the eight-ball that they can’t catch up.
“I believe in public education. I don’t want to be sending my kid to a private school. I want them to go to the local government school but it just doesn’t seem that it’s good enough."
I know a thing or two about state schools and private schools.
I’ll start with my own experience from when I was at school. I was at a state-integrated Catholic high school in Dunedin which, for all intents and purposes, was a state school. And I hated it.
It was violent; I thought the principal, especially, didn’t give a damn; I was failing miserably; and, as it turned out, it was rife with sexual abuse. So my parents let me leave and I worked for them for a year but then they had an offer out-of-the-blue to buy their little business and they took it.
Which left me without a job and that was when they suggested I go back to school and - despite them not having a lot of money - they sent me to John McGlashan College which, at the time, was fully private. These days it’s integrated - but, back then, it was full fees. So my parents sacrificed a lot to get me back on track.
And that school turned my life around. Within 18 months I had UE and a job at the local paper as a cadet reporter. I was exactly where I wanted to be.
So, on the basis of that experience, I could say that private schools are definitely the way to go. But fast-forward a few years and we found ourselves with three kids approaching high school age. So which way did we go? State or private?
Well, the bank-balance decided pretty much. Because we were never going to be able to afford to put three kids through private schools. But, do you know what? We’ve never regretted it.
Sure, when I went to that private school in Dunedin it opened doors that had never been open to me until then. But I can honestly say that, when it came to our kids, going through the state system wasn’t the roadblock to opportunity that some people might think.
Which is why, despite having my own life turned around by going to a private school for just 18 months, I don’t buy the argument that private schools are better than state schools.
John MacDonald is the Canterbury Mornings host on Newstalk ZB Christchurch. This article was first published HERE
And so what St Cuthbert’s is doing is not unusual at all. Like Lincoln High, it’s choosing not to do something that it’s not obliged to do.
Nevertheless, the parents at St Cuthbert’s are right behind it.
One, who has a daughter who is at intermediate age and will be going into Year 9 next year, says she had been looking at sending her daughter to a state school for her high school years, but isn’t so sure now.
She says: “I had always thought my kids might go to university in Australia and it just concerns me that they might turn up and be so far behind the eight-ball that they can’t catch up.
“I believe in public education. I don’t want to be sending my kid to a private school. I want them to go to the local government school but it just doesn’t seem that it’s good enough."
I know a thing or two about state schools and private schools.
I’ll start with my own experience from when I was at school. I was at a state-integrated Catholic high school in Dunedin which, for all intents and purposes, was a state school. And I hated it.
It was violent; I thought the principal, especially, didn’t give a damn; I was failing miserably; and, as it turned out, it was rife with sexual abuse. So my parents let me leave and I worked for them for a year but then they had an offer out-of-the-blue to buy their little business and they took it.
Which left me without a job and that was when they suggested I go back to school and - despite them not having a lot of money - they sent me to John McGlashan College which, at the time, was fully private. These days it’s integrated - but, back then, it was full fees. So my parents sacrificed a lot to get me back on track.
And that school turned my life around. Within 18 months I had UE and a job at the local paper as a cadet reporter. I was exactly where I wanted to be.
So, on the basis of that experience, I could say that private schools are definitely the way to go. But fast-forward a few years and we found ourselves with three kids approaching high school age. So which way did we go? State or private?
Well, the bank-balance decided pretty much. Because we were never going to be able to afford to put three kids through private schools. But, do you know what? We’ve never regretted it.
Sure, when I went to that private school in Dunedin it opened doors that had never been open to me until then. But I can honestly say that, when it came to our kids, going through the state system wasn’t the roadblock to opportunity that some people might think.
Which is why, despite having my own life turned around by going to a private school for just 18 months, I don’t buy the argument that private schools are better than state schools.
John MacDonald is the Canterbury Mornings host on Newstalk ZB Christchurch. This article was first published HERE
5 comments:
What decile school did your girls go to? What proportion maori/pacifica?
As Robert Arthur insinuates above, what makes a school 'good' is a host of factors largely outside its own control, stemming as they do from the domestic backgrounds of the pupils.
Of course you then need various admin structures in place to capitalise on favourable input factors.
I started my professional life as a teacher in NZ in the late 1970s at a single-sex school where uniform was mandatory, there was a daily assembly, and excellence was expected in all things, academic and non-academic. It might sound like a private school but it wasn't - it was Auckland Grammar. My experience there shaped many of my attitudes towards education and schooling that have stayed with me for life.
The short answer is yes if they offer internationally recognised alternatives to the dog that is NCEA, such as IB and CIA, good resources, subject options, and teacher-student ratios. It’s a no brainer if you can afford it, especially if your child is looking to further studies abroad. Given the state of the education system now with the emphasis being more on ideological policy than academia, I say it’s best to get them into private as soon as possible!
NCEA also means nothing outside of NZ, and I would argue the so-called achievement of ‘Excellence’ would barely meet the equivalent of a 3.0 GPA average, which is usually the minimum to get into decent universities overseas, excluding the Ivy League schools.
In terms of the author’s own experience however, he has conflated state-integrated with private/ independent schools. They are poles apart, not least because of the huge difference in fees alone. The former is often (ironically) more elitist due to the very long waitlists, and is still of course under the thumb of the MOE.
I agree with Barend about how NZ state schools used to have standards actually higher in some cases than prestigious private schools.
I do believe what makes the difference is the teaching methods and philosophies in the school.
While traditional rather than progressive philosophies and methods are more effective, in having children achieve and reach their full potential, there were in the past some poorly performing private schools. Sometimes for example in Catholic schools the teachers were untrained and incapable.
My brother went to Timaru B.H.S. which in the 1960s was considered to have a higher standard than Christ's College. Every student who did at this school, the subjects for medicine was accepted into medical school at university.
Now I consider the standards in all our schools are much worse than the average performing schools in the middle of the 20th century, whether public or private.
All our schools have succumbed to the progressive philosophy which has never valued academic achievement and their methods manifest this by the results of its ineffective methods. Examples are whole language and constructivism (DIY learning) of progressive education compared with the phonics and comprehension and direct instruction of traditional education.
Since to-days private schools do usually have a more traditional focus ,they are usually better,
What we baby boomers mostly received free in the past was more than comparable to what parents pay heaps for more in private schools. International tests of the 1970s prove this.
My husband, from a low income family and parents with bad grammar,poor vocabulary and no formal education beyond 12 years old ,went to Catholic schools in the 1960s.
He was taught by dedicated brothers who had to teach classes of over 40 pupils in cramped, unheated classrooms with limited resources. While the discipline was too brutal and the bullying by other pupils shocking he was well taught by the methods then and gained university scholarships in English and Mathematics..
Sociology dominating our present education thinking has put smoke screens over the real issues blighting our schooling today.
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