Unfortunately the latest OECD studies show that a significant portion of the NZ population doesn’t think so – and it is yet another awful international comparison.
According to the 2024 OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions only 55% of the NZ population are satisfied with our education system. The OECD average is 57% and NZ is well behind Australia (71%) as well as Mexico!!, Netherlands, Canada, Costa Rica, Israel, Finland, etc. And also SWEDEN – who during the week the PPTA people derided for having Charter Schools. (NB: See below NZ not so flash on Health either. The survey also includes results on trust on whether bureaucrats and innovative and other measures of trust in our Ministries).
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Click to view
The education result is, of course, a huge indictment on the Ministry of Education whose purpose is: We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent outcomes.
It is also a huge indictment on the teacher unions. The PPTA’s mission statement is: To advance the cause of education generally and of all phases of secondary and technical education in particular.
The outstanding Maryanne Spurdle of Maxim Institute makes these observations on the OECD survey.
“Finland topped the list with 81% satisfied; Switzerland and Denmark boast 76% and 74%. All have decentralised education systems where regions manage operations. In Denmark, municipalities also fund schools up to lower secondary level. Upper secondary schools are centrally funded and self-governing.”
“In the Netherlands, 71% are satisfied. Both public and private schools are funded equally by the state, and funding depends on outcomes.”
“In Australia, 36% of students attend private and Catholic Schools that are heavily subsidised by state and central governments.”
“Next time someone insists that only the Ministry of Education can improve education, remember this: Parents are more satisfied with schools when educators and communities have more say than bureaucrats, unions, and politicians. And providing meaningful school choice always serves students better.”
“In New Zealand, some still believe that the introduction of Charter Schools will devastate public schools. In fact, returning some schools to communities and iwi is exactly what public education needs.”
“Why? Because more than 500 state schools are over-capacity—a massive problem that new Charter Schools will ease. And because in secondary schools, 27% of vacant teaching positions are going unfilled and a growing number of teachers leave the profession mid-career. Independent schools, however, can recruit more broadly and have more liberty to create appealing working conditions.”
“Rather than worry about publicly funding private operators—which we happily do with services from GP clinics to emergency housing providers—let’s be afraid of imitating Greece. Its centralised education system spends no public funds on independent schools, and it was the least popular in the OECD report: 37% of Greeks are satisfied, 47% are dissatisfied.”
Alwyn Poole, a well-known figure in the New Zealand education system, he founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. This article was sourced HERE
3 comments:
“ We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent outcomes”?
Only if “equitable and excellent” means “no winners and no losers” and “uniformly mediocre.”
Various elements of our public service have lost their way. As a former public servant in education research and statistics, I remain horrified at what I saw. Apppointment of non-subject matter experts into positions of power and influence. People who held no qualifications "leading" teams of highly-qualified researchers and statisticians. Unbelievable rudeness, framing of disliked staff in order to make them look incompetent, physical intimidation and plagiarising of the work of experts. Isolating disliked staff through exclusion from meetings and instructing other staff not to communicate with those being targeted etc etc etc. Of course, brutal management of experts out of employment.
Our esteemed Ministry refuses to communicate with me on these issues and the assessment agency has "mislaid" my reports of bullying and prevented others fomr complaining through threats that anyone who complains will lose their jobs. Incidentally, my allegations of bullying of my colleagues by abusive managers were upheld, following meetings between them and the Public Service Association. This fact is on record and cannot be denied.
I have written about this stuff many times and I repeat myself here because the public must hear the truth that things have been negative in our Ministry and the agency that oversees assessment. What value do those kinds of people bring to education?
Both organizations must be re-built from the ground up.
David Alexander Lillis
These people who run our education establishment are ethically corrupt degenerates whose main ambition in their job appears to be to do as much harm academically and morally as possible to our most precious of possessions our children.
They promote methods of teaching that are ineffective, have no qualms about sexualizing small children, suggesting promiscuity is fine, cancelling any thing that is disciplined or traditional, programming children to defy authority especially parents, happily introducing DEI Marxism into an already morally bankrupt and failing curriculum....
Schools for me are unsafe places for children, and should have an R18 rating.
Get desperate and homeschool or keep them home frequently and educate them yourself. There are excellent Australian Excel Maths workbooks and Scholastic writing books.
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