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.
12 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?
Airport police - who, let’s be honest, have nothing to do - need to be fining parents when they see them at the airport during term time.
This should happen until every kid can differentiate ‘your’ from ‘you’re’ and recognise that the term ‘graphic novel’ is an oxymoron.
As for the unions - it takes a special kind of stupid to protest against kids being educated.
To all and sundry, in reading this article and the posted comments, did we not, many years ago have - Truancy Officers, employed by the Dept of Education - whose roles were to -
[1] - patrol streets looking for children who should be in school
[2] - visiting homes, because schools reported that children were not at school.
Who decided that this function should be placed in "outer space"?
Great work on this David Seymour. For years and years the nation’s parents have been duped by this shocking practice. It was even worse than normal during covid, when many schools decided to take multiple teacher only days in the final terms of the year because they hadn’t got any earlier due to lockdowns. The whole thing was made worse by the fact that the teacher’s only days were not just in term time but were always mysteriously scheduled before or after long weekends of holidays. I personally think the unions should stop loaning and Seymour should require school and teacher reps to apologise on video for the millions of lost working time which resulted for the rest of the country.
This brings into sharp focus a facet of New Zealand that did not escape me and it is endemic. What is it? An almost complete lack of Compliance Monitoring & Enforcement (CME). Rules and/or standards are established with a naive assumption on the part of politicians, etc. that simply by putting in place a rule or law it will be followed, at least by the majority. Look at pretty much any facet of our existence and co-existence with our peers, it should be be quite obvious that rules are established with very little if any consideration or provision for CME. This leads rapidly to those in our society who are very adept at exploiting this facet simply doing what they want since they know there will be little chance of facing any consequence. A prime example are industry bodies that are allowed to self regulate. It is known as regulatory capture - and NZ is full of that to the extent that effective CME is a complete joke.
Teacher-only days.
It perplexes and dazzles me,
Betwixt classes and holidays,
That teachers and ancillaries
Require extra in-service days.
I do not deny that they should be
Deservers of in-services
But out of class hours, if you please,
For the sake of their novices.
Exemplary dedication
To our children's education
Dictates without hesitation
Attendance and application.
The salaries of the learnéd,
As a lesson to pedagogues,
Should be dockéd if not earnéd
By giving lessons to our sprogs.
For what example is offered
By absenteeism from class?
Tell me who it is who'll profit?
And how'll it help our kids to pass?
You may call me a disruptor
Or threaten with six of the best.
I'm challenging the instructors
To faithfully rise to the test.
Those interrupted working weeks
Take their toll on parent workers
Who lose a day's earnings on leave,
Taking the slack of deserters.
Have I gone too far in my speech?
Have you been grievously impeached?
Well then, I thee humbly beseech,
Prove me wrong, now, turn up and teach!
As with so much else Truancy enforcemnt has been wound down because pursuit will show up unfortuante maori statistics, which would in turn lead to Waitangi Tribunal pontifications, parade of a myriad whining maori on RNZ etc.
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