So the first thing David Seymour's announced is that he's coming for the parents. He's bringing in the possibility of enforcing fines on parents who don't send their kids to school.
Now, it's 100 percent that the excuse-makers of this country are gonna have a problem with this because it’s picking on the vulnerable, etc.
Let me tell you something - school is compulsory in New Zealand. If it's compulsory and you don't do it, you will get punished. A fine is the punishment, that's how compulsion works.
There's no point in having it be compulsory if you aren't prepared to punish someone for the compulsory thing not happening.
And the fine thing is not new, they already exist on the books.
Parents can be fined up to $3000 if they’re recidivist offenders, it's just that the fine is not enforced.
The second thing he’s doing is scrapping teacher-only days during term times. Schools now have to hold teacher-only days in term breaks.
100 percent the teacher unions will complain about this, but again - this is not new.
According to David Seymour's office, the law already states that teacher-only days should only be held during school breaks. And if they have to be held during term time, it must be only with the permission of the Ministry of Education - but it’s got a bit loose.
So, all David Seymour is doing here is reminding us all what the existing rules already are and getting us to follow them.
And the fact that that is quite a big crack down - I think that tells you how loose we’ve gotten with respecting education.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
Of course the teacher unions will moan and bitch. They are part of the CTU with its strong links to the Labour Party. Anything put forward by this coalition will be resisted. Besides those kids who don’t want to be in school are more likely to be difficult to teach, having them truant is a win for teachers.
Rather than non-enforceable fines, those parents should be hit with prosecutions for negligence. Parents have a duty of care towards their offspring which includes getting them educated up to the minimum school-leaving age.
Instead of fining people or wagging your finger at the kids here’s another solution.
Every truant day is counted as 3 percent off all your exam marks per day. Take a day off to protest about climate, that costs you 3 percent, that maybe pass or fail for some kids. Truant for 10 days, then you’re in deep shit unless your a genius.
Go David !!
About time the rules were obeyed and enforced.
Back in my school days, "truancy" was something that we only read about in American novels.
I have mixed ideas about school truancy since in 1980 we kept our child at home at year 2, because the state primary school wouldn't teach him the basics. The child was dyslexic and dysgraphic (poor handwriting). We had taught him to read as a four year old using structured phonics. The school disapproved of the method we used as well as teaching a preschooler. They declared he was socially maladjusted and gave him leggo to play with for 18 months until the rest of the class had a comparable reading age to his. It was total insanity and despite many communications with the school and Department we came to an impasse and my husband was taken to court for truancy of his child.
In the magistrate's court the court room was occupied by many petty
youth criminals who were illiterate. The magistrate displayed immense frustration at the Dept.of Ed's refusal to teach a child and the Dept. was reprimanded and had to pay court costs. This was the definitive court case that forced the humbled Dept. to introduce homeschooling.
I would declare the issue in NZ schooling has not changed. The Ideology of Progressivism which has never focused on teaching the basics , has produced with its child centered beliefs, poor academic standards and over the years, filled our classrooms up with many undisciplined , bullying , miserably illiterate and innumerate children with no morality nor work ethic. More recently even being indoctrinated into Marxist critical theory resulting in radical activists determined to break down society.
There needs to be an overhaul of the entire system with recognition it is a disastrous failure by not concentrating on real academic education as we excelled at in the past. Parents and children are failing to believe in the worth of attending a school where social engineering not learning dominates.
An ex-teacher myself, I can't believe the cheek of teachers with 12 week holidays holding teacher-only days in term-time! What?
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