Cam Slater: Labour, Where 58% Failure Is Fine by Them

Labour and the teachers’ unions are angry and upset because they don’t like the Government’s numbers on the number of kids failing at mathematics, preferring their numbers which still show 58% of year-eight kids are failing.

You have really got to laugh at the effrontery of Labour. They are ‘angry’ that the government is moving to change the mathematics curriculum because:

• Only 22 per cent of students reach the expected standard for maths at year eight
• Three out of five are more than a year behind
• Eight per cent of kids in our lowest decile schools are at curriculum in maths at year eight and 79 per cent are more than a year behind
• For Māori, just 12 per cent are at curriculum in year eight and 76 per cent are more than a year behind

And they are upset because they say the real number is 42 per cent, which they seem to be OK with.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the Government was not using accurate data.

“It’s a bit like moving the goalposts after the kids have already kicked the ball,” he said.

“I think the Government should use data and information that’s accurate. I think assessing kids against a curriculum that they have not been taught isn’t a fair reflection of what kids are capable of.

The data they’re using now doesn’t have any historical comparators, we can’t benchmark that against anything because it’s literally data that’s been made up from assessing kids against a standard that they haven’t been taught.”

He pointed to data from 2022 showing about 42% of Year 8s were at the standard they should be, and acknowledged that was a problem – just not as extreme as the Government was claiming.

“That does highlight that there is an issue, a gap between Year 4 and Year 8, that seems to be where we lose progress in the system – but that gap has been pretty consistent now for quite a long time. There is no magical fix here.”

Stuff

So, Chris Hipkins and Labour, who presided over this parlous state of mathematics learning in New Zealand are upset because 22 per cent seems too low and their number 42 per cent is a better number...for them.

Even if you use Labour’s union supplied numbers, that still means that by year eight, 58 per cent of students are not at the required level of mathematics learning.

What that is is a sad indictment on unionised learning environments creating a systemic failure that is condemning children to irrecoverable learning deficiencies.

But Labour are angry at the Government for doing something because they used, in their eyes, wrong data.

Labour’s education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said she was angry.

“This Government has manipulated data to justify their own crisis ... they've shifted the goal posts on the assessments, they have assessed kids against material that they haven’t been learnt,” [? Ed.] she said.

“Effectively you’re measuring kids against something that they’ve never, ever been taught. That is manipulation ... It’s very populist statement to be able to make, the statement that’s going to land in people’s heads is the 22% – it’s an unfair judgment of where our kids are at.”

She said she had heard the Government was also looking at further reworking of the curriculum in a departure from the work Labour had put into it. Labour’s refreshed curriculum, introduced last year, was what the Year 8s were assessed against.

“Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely know that there was a difference in an issue between what was happening at year four and year eight ... we had a curriculum that we had developed with experts, we got them in, we got an evidence-based curriculum that was coming into place, we did what overseas countries have been doing, we looked at best practice overseas,” Tinetti said.

“The devil is in the detail here, but it looks like this Government has got rid of that and put in a curriculum, or putting in a curriculum, that has no evidence around it and no research base to it and I’m really angry about this, because ultimately our kids will suffer even more ... it looks like they’re talking about bringing in a one size fits all model that is not the same curriculum that we had in place.”

Good grief: ex union boss and Labour MP Jan Tinetti is angry. Now what?

Labour have never had answers. All they ever do is protect the hegemony of teachers’ unions. And, based on the evidence supplied, even Labour’s evidence shows they have presided over a 58 per cent failure rate, but in all likelihood the number is far greater and could be as high as 78 per cent failure in year eight.

Here’s the thing...should we listen to Labour and the failing teachers’ unions, or should we seek answers elsewhere?

I know what the parents will be saying, and it won’t gel with Labour’s hopeless position.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. Cam blogs regularly on the Good Oil - where this article was sourced.