Firstly, the most eye-opening headline that sums it all up: ‘NZ records worst ever PISA international test results, amid global decline’.
Worst ever... think about that and what it tells you.
Then, turns out, our results were most likely higher than they actually are because our participation rate was so abysmal.
In other words, their thinking is those that did take part were from more successful schools so the numbers such as they are skew higher.
The most worrying thing for me personally, was the fact that when you crunch the results it turns out there are fewer kids doing really well, and more kids doing really badly. So we are in the midst of a proportional shift.
And by way of comparison, Singapore, also a small island nation with 5 million people, turns out to be, yet again, at the top of the pile in every single category.
How is it a similar sized country in similar circumstances gets such a disproportionate result?
Then ask yourself this: given the entire world went down, and it was due in part to Covid, why isn't Covid and its approach a major part of our Covid inquiry?
Who cares how the jab got rolled out and how many hospital beds were occupied when an entire generation of kids has been hobbled educationally because they couldn’t go to school, and those that did, did so in a gerrymandered-online kind of fashion.
The critical decisions around tech support, the variation in quality of teaching during lockdowns, the length of the lockdowns in places like Auckland all had a material, potentially lifelong effect on hundreds of thousands of young New Zealanders, and what part is that part playing in the inquiry? The answer is none.
It’s scandal piled upon scandal.
We can hide a bit, if you want, behind the fact everyone sank, but that’s the mediocrity part of all this.
The simple fact is we are failing and failing badly.
The system needs major overhaul and yet the establishment, from teachers, to unions, to previous governments defends it and, at best, tinkers with it.
Apply it to your own life:
The worst, fill in the gap, ever. The worst what? Job, decision, risk, plan... The worst thing you ever did or made, would you accept that for yourself? And yet we do for our kids.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
In other words, their thinking is those that did take part were from more successful schools so the numbers such as they are skew higher.
The most worrying thing for me personally, was the fact that when you crunch the results it turns out there are fewer kids doing really well, and more kids doing really badly. So we are in the midst of a proportional shift.
And by way of comparison, Singapore, also a small island nation with 5 million people, turns out to be, yet again, at the top of the pile in every single category.
How is it a similar sized country in similar circumstances gets such a disproportionate result?
Then ask yourself this: given the entire world went down, and it was due in part to Covid, why isn't Covid and its approach a major part of our Covid inquiry?
Who cares how the jab got rolled out and how many hospital beds were occupied when an entire generation of kids has been hobbled educationally because they couldn’t go to school, and those that did, did so in a gerrymandered-online kind of fashion.
The critical decisions around tech support, the variation in quality of teaching during lockdowns, the length of the lockdowns in places like Auckland all had a material, potentially lifelong effect on hundreds of thousands of young New Zealanders, and what part is that part playing in the inquiry? The answer is none.
It’s scandal piled upon scandal.
We can hide a bit, if you want, behind the fact everyone sank, but that’s the mediocrity part of all this.
The simple fact is we are failing and failing badly.
The system needs major overhaul and yet the establishment, from teachers, to unions, to previous governments defends it and, at best, tinkers with it.
Apply it to your own life:
The worst, fill in the gap, ever. The worst what? Job, decision, risk, plan... The worst thing you ever did or made, would you accept that for yourself? And yet we do for our kids.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
4 comments:
Absolutely correct. All the woke left wing drama but the kids can’t read or write. Save the turtles, save the planet, save a daft language but can’t read and write English.
A generation of Dunderheaded people taught by a bunch of Dunderheaded people.
New Zealand needs to be better than this and I’m afraid the people are too stupid to realise it.
How did the other countris do in te reo? The greatest distraction for teachers and students ever devised and especially disatrous for the total immersion victims.
As a maths and reading tutor for 45years I have seen the gradual decline for decades . It is absolutely nothing new but this century there was an acceleration.
I am tired of reading the doom and gloom and here are some practical free suggestions - Reach out and teach a child or children to read. Anyone can do it if they have patience. There are copious amounts of material on line .
TEACHING READING;
eg The Queensland Historical readers used successfully for 60 years and phonic based . Supplement with modern phonic readers ( This is dreadfully old fashioned but pedagogically correct for the beginner reader).
Follow this with Reading Intervention ; Word Connections. Affixes", Open Access Material from the University of Texas 2023. Excellent for seven year olds and upwards particularly those with difficulties .
MATHS TEACHING; teach a child their tables and number facts . Make flash cards and use the internet for other activities to rote learn tables .
Buy Arithmetic workbooks from Asian Budget shops for junior maths.
Free online Arithmetic; 'Singapore Maths Exercises . Do not use the crazy NZ syllabus with a multitude of arithmetic strategies. LEARN ONE METHOD ONLY .
Forget that the educational establishment are ever going to be of any use . They are hopelessly stuck in their ideological glue.
There- something practical for a change
Great, Gaynor.
It is not as if there are no models.There is the successful past and other countries which succeed still. A major problem is adequately occupying the notably able childrenif pitching to the mob.
I totally agree about the one method for arithmetic problems, and need not obsess about children grasping the princples behind. I have qualifications to near engineering degree level but 70 plus years later still often "borrow and payback" when substracting and often chant a section of the tables to myself for combinations not instantly recalled. A major problem today with calcualtors is the inability to recognise a result way out of range.
Of course as mentioned on several occasions teachers now labour under the problems of no failures to level, no strap, no strict truant service, and hyper sensitive non supportive parents. And prospective good objective teachers now choose other vocations to avoid the endless maori twaddle.
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