Teaching Council chief executive Lesley Hoskin has warned the “radical system changes” will cost and the government will need to make the “necessary financial commitment”.
“The council believes teachers, both new and experienced, are passionate, dedicated and capable. But for too long they have been let down by a system that doesn’t give them the structure or the resources they need.”
[…] “What’s not fair is that we are saying teachers have failed the system when actually the system has failed teachers.”
[…] The council had set out a roadmap in 2017 which they wanted to see implemented now, Hoskin said.
This roadmap included a post-graduate qualification becoming the benchmark for becoming a teacher, having higher entry requirements to “attract a higher calibre of candidates”, making sure graduate teachers had subject knowledge which was relevant to the curriculum with a focus on English, maths and science, and providing more opportunities for practice-related research.
[…] The system should move towards a post-graduate teacher education qualification “and make that the benchmark for registration of new teachers”, she said.
“That would mean that applicants would need strong subject knowledge in at least one curriculum learning area that’s relevant to teaching gained in a prior degree.”
Steps also needed to be taken to make teaching more desirable, she said.
“If we want to make teaching a really attractive career we have to go back and have a look at the attractiveness of it [in terms of] a salary, if you’ve got a school leaver looking at what choices they might make, you just know one of the considerations has to be what’s my learning capacity, what are the other benefits and do I end up with a huge debt at the end of my training.”
So more three Rs and less te R. No more courses on Maori weaving and how to placate the local taniwha. Oh, and actually hiring teachers for what they know instead of just how woke they are. And paying them the money they deserve.
Sounds good to me. Here’s hoping the Government follows through.
Kevin is a Libertarian and pragmatic anarchist. His favourite saying: “There but for the grace of God go I.” This article was first published HERE
4 comments:
The Teaching Council wringing its hands about teacher standards is in my view hypocritical. Seems to me they have hugely contributed to the problem. With their huge and constant emphasis on matters pro maori the objective type of teacher likely to be good at maths and science have been frightened off. Objective teachers can also fathom the effect or not of their teaching of reading and adapt accordingly. Few objective types want to spend a life with hours spent enduring powhiri, karakia, endless rambling meetings in maori time, te reo babble everywhere and the need to disguise failure of maori students and to pander to their often neglectful parents.. From the Teaching Council newsletter inordinate training effort is put into matters pro maori. They are currently promoting yet another training session on "Unteach Racism".
The recently reported level of non grasp by many teachers of some everyday topics was a revelation. My tradesman father, edcucated in the 1920s, with one yaer of secondary, would have been streets ahead of them and their grand sounding qualifications
Yes ... the proposed changes are commendable and clever.
Education faculties in our universities are among the most radicalized and ideological.
Requirements for a general degree as a prerequisite to entry to an on-site teacher training programme will lift the calibre of entrants, reduce opportunities for their radicalization, and help schools at the same time.
A real step forward.
I have written on another blog recently ( Professor Raine's) but I think it is worth repeating.
It is the overarching ideology of Progressive Education (PE) which is the problem and it has had a tight grip on our entire education system for far too long. The failure it produces is now very apparent. The Whole Language reading method aka Balanced Literacy, a product of PE, has been thoroughly disproven by science and research. But the child -centered constructivist (discover and teach yourself) approach that has trashed the teaching of all subject areas needs to be rooted out. Direct, systematic, cumulative and disciplined instruction is what is most effective. It is what we used to have and runs counter to the PE philosophy. The latest woke and Maorification infusion we observe invading our schools is yet another import from PE perverse and anti academic thinking.
Until we discern the philosophy of the beast PE, we will continue to have its dark influence in all areas and levelsin our schools. Any other changes will only be rearranging deck chairs.
I am not a supporter of the Teacher's Council but what they say makes some sense given recent survey results. One said about 30-40% of new primary school teachers did not feel confident in teaching Maths. Another recent one showed how many new teachers had not passed NCEA Level 1 in one or all of the key areas of English, Maths and Science (appaling numbers).
Note the Council drew up this plan in 2017 ---who has been the Minister of Education since then up until the last election ?
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