The Education Review Office have published a report correctly calling school attendance in New Zealand a crisis and stating:
“Tens of thousands of “chronically absent” students are missing weeks of school – and the Education Review Office (ERO) says it has reached crisis point.
In the past decade, chronic truancy has doubled in secondary schools and nearly tripled in primary schools.”
The core reason students are not going to school is that many, many families have completely lost faith in the school system as a whole, their local schools, the Ministry of Education and the efficacy of our qualifications system. Don’t forget 10,000 students are enrolled nowhere at all.
We are the nation in the developed world with the most bullying in schools and the greatest difference in achievement between haves and have nots.
Ethinicity statisitics are telling too. In Term 2 of 2024 approx 53% of students fully attended but only 41% of Pasifika and 39% of Maori.
Instead of accepting any level of responsibility for this dire situation the teacher unions come straight out with … give us more money and will will fix things and buy the Auckland Harbour Bridge as well.
Post Primary Teachers’ Association president Chris Abercrombie said “governments need to be brave enough to address underlying causes of chronic non-attendance, including poverty, housing insecurity and mental health”.
This included integrated and funded solutions involving “gateway, alternative education and activity centres, pastoral care and learning support”.
No mention there of teacher quality, school quality, qualifications quality.
NZEI Te Riu Roa President, Mark Potter, says “the weaknesses identified in the current system are down to either lack of resourcing or socioeconomic factors that contribute to absenteeism like trauma and poverty.”
There are two key problems/solutions here:
The core reason students are not going to school is that many, many families have completely lost faith in the school system as a whole, their local schools, the Ministry of Education and the efficacy of our qualifications system. Don’t forget 10,000 students are enrolled nowhere at all.
We are the nation in the developed world with the most bullying in schools and the greatest difference in achievement between haves and have nots.
Ethinicity statisitics are telling too. In Term 2 of 2024 approx 53% of students fully attended but only 41% of Pasifika and 39% of Maori.
Instead of accepting any level of responsibility for this dire situation the teacher unions come straight out with … give us more money and will will fix things and buy the Auckland Harbour Bridge as well.
Post Primary Teachers’ Association president Chris Abercrombie said “governments need to be brave enough to address underlying causes of chronic non-attendance, including poverty, housing insecurity and mental health”.
This included integrated and funded solutions involving “gateway, alternative education and activity centres, pastoral care and learning support”.
No mention there of teacher quality, school quality, qualifications quality.
NZEI Te Riu Roa President, Mark Potter, says “the weaknesses identified in the current system are down to either lack of resourcing or socioeconomic factors that contribute to absenteeism like trauma and poverty.”
There are two key problems/solutions here:
1. Parenting. This is not to dump on parents but as a society we need to recognise that we need mechanisms to massive improve our parenting – starting from having outstnding information and programmes from pregnancy to 5 years of age. This should in no way be funnelled through the Ministry of Education or schools. Good parenting can, and should, occur – regardless of wealth, ethnicity, parent’s education levels.
2. The Ministry and schools need to accept their very significant part in creating the problem – and actually set our to reform and inprove. At present they offer no genuine solutions to the attendance crisis.
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 published HERE
4 comments:
Most colonists, including recent, have come from cultures where for centuries it has been necessary to strive to survive. A regard for material success further prompted effort beyond survival. But maori and pacifica who account for many truants, lived in countries of natural resources. No need to greatly exert. And the small population fostered communal living which developed practices to prevent advancement beyond the group. So with these inherited instincts, at school a large proportion of the truants lack the genetic urge to toil. Then our welfare system is incredibly soft, probably the most generous in the world outside monoculture countries. After all allowances, and subtracting expenses, the net hourly return for tedious work is negligible. So the truly rational enjoy every passing day free instead of in some tedious job, even one as gentle as cone shepherding. A few decades ago without a partner with a job the prospect of a normal married type life (including children) was limited for both. But not today. A fine state house and far above subsistence benefit rolls in regardless. Preparation for does not require boring school effort in a bewildering class promoted alongside others of dispiriting greater ability and motivation.
I agree with much of what Robert says in his contribution to the debate. However, having been dedicated to raising literary and numeracy standards in schools , for most of my life my focus has been on our abysmal schooling at particularly primary level.
Here is a quote from a medical research paper :' reading is described as the most foundational skill for all school learning. Students who do not achieve proficiency in reading ( and arithmetic) during the early years of school are known to have difficulty comprehending subject matter in classes that follow. Educational experts suggest that when students have difficulty learning to read , their love of learning and MOTIVATION diminishes .It is also vital for social and economic success. Students with poor reading skills have been shown to experience decreases in self-esteem, self concept, and further motivation for learning and are more likely to become frustrated , overwhelmed, or DISINTERESTED . Given the importance of academic success to children's well-being and ultimate success in life , all educational and environmental factors, including improved nutrition are worthy of consideration for optimization of learning.'
We have had, I consider the very worst methods for teaching the basics and higher, a proliferation of junk food and a belief in 'permissive 'discipline. This is the inevitable result of ridiculing and cancelling out superior traditional teaching methods, allowing food companies more recently to have unbridled freedom in producing and advertising low nutrition, highly addictive junk food for children and constructivist ideology which dictates children are not to be dominated by adults at school and home, but free to make their own decisions about what they learn, eat and how to behave.
Our entire education system, based on the socialist ideas of the 1940s , was an insidious idea and needs to be seen for what it is -a total failure as socialism always is in all areas of life.
Reference "The relationship of DHA ( an omega 3 oil) with learning and behaviour in healthy children' Nutrients 2013 , Jul 19.
I'd be careful about identifying the journal 'Nutrients' as a "medical research" journal. It is a so-called 'open access' journal published by a crowd called MDPI who are not recognised by most scientific bodies. The Google entry on the journal notes that it has been accused of unethical practices and publishing 'research' that isn't kosher.
The article was copied into the National Library of Medicine and although they don't endorse or agree with the contents , I trust they would not publish anything that was entirely faulty. I have seen similar articles in very many other places about the effect illiteracy has on children. This is what I was emphasizing in my blog. Even our own Massey University Educational staff have written on the disastrous psychological effect illiteracy has on children. Whole Language, still dominant in NZ has very little concern for the victims of its failed experiment in teaching reading by guessing and pictures.The teacher unions do not consider it at all and just narrowly focus on money. As the article concluded we should be considering as many sources of solutions to the devastating problem of children's underachieving.
The use of natural substances is seldom acceptable to Main Stream Medicine, rigidly adhering to pharmaceuticals, but that was not my main point. Also much accepted modern medicine is full of unethical practices . The covid vaccines illustrates this.
Post a Comment