Sixteen percent of last year’s school-leavers had no qualifications, the highest figure in a decade.
It equates to about 10,600 teenagers, and is 0.4 of a percentage point worse than the previous year and about six percentage points higher than the 10-11 percent recorded in the years prior to the start of the pandemic.
The percentage of school leavers with no NCEA certificate has been rising since 2020, a trend teachers blamed on the after-effects of Covid-19 lockdowns combined with high employment prompting more young people to leave school earlier than they otherwise would. . .
Failure to gain any qualification will have many causes and among them are family failures.
It’s not only schools and teachers to blame when children get to high school with poor literacy and numeracy.
A child’s home environment is crucial for their development and too many children start school without the pre-learning skills they need; too many have very poor vocabularies; and too many lack social skills including toilet training.
They have been failed by their families as pre-schoolers and that failure continues at school.
Their problems would have been evident after a very few years at primary school. Responsible, and able, parents would have known that and done something about it, but not all parents are responsible and able.
Socioeconomic barriers had a big impact – 28 percent of leavers from schools facing the most barriers had no NCEA certificate compared with 4 percent of leavers from schools facing the fewest barriers. . .
This indicates that at least some of the family failures are intergenerational and complex. Many families face poverty, lack of access to resources, mental health issues, and their own struggles with literacy and numeracy.
Children grow up with parents who may not be literate or numerate and aren’t willing, or able, to help their children with their education. They leave school with no qualifications, are unable to get well paid work, or any work at all. They have children and are unable, or unwilling to help them . . . and so the cycle of failure goes on.
Failing children is failing the future and the failure for many starts with their families.
There is no easy solution to that but more specialised staffing at schools for children who need extra help would compensate for some of what is lacking in their homes.
It’s not up to schools to teach parents, but addressing family failures necessitates helping them so they can help themselves and their children too.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
5 comments:
When you have less than 40% of children attending school regularly, during Labour's period in power, it is no wonder that many will end up with no qualifications. It's no point blaming covid or pakeha or 19th century colonialists.
There is a lot to be said about Mothers being at home running the household, while Dad goes to work, as was the case when I was growing up in the ‘50s/‘60s. Alcohol when used to extreme was detrimental to home life but nothing compared to the world of drugs. The horse has bolted, and one only has to see the level of violence and erratic behaviours, now displayed, to connect one to the other.
>"There is a lot to be said about Mothers being at home running the household, while Dad goes to work, as was the case when I was growing up in the ‘50s/‘60s."
A lot of people would agree with this for the first 3 or 4 years of a child's life. But who can afford to live like that even for a few years nowadays?
Don't get me wrong , I accept everything in this article and also of those who have contributed comments but to not mention that we also have a failing education system is to miss a really big part of the picture.
We have had the worst and most destructive possible ideologies in education that researchers have revealed SPECIFICALLY DISADVANTAGES lower socioeconomic students . Dame Marie Clay's Whole Language reading method is an example in producing enormous reading failure even in higher income families. In high decile Kapiti , my mother was inundated , at her private school room , with more than a thousand bright , well cared-for children who were failing to learn to read .
The ideology , constructivism, behind this has perversely persisted for decades in NZ . Only in the last few years has definitive research shown this WL reading method , is a complete failure for those children who had Reading Recovery.
Our primary school maths ( arithmetic ) is based on the same destructive ideas . Hence more failure for particularly the disadvantaged as well as the advantaged.
The 16 year olds , who are leaving school now without quals. are the unfortunate victims of our fiasco of an education system not just the result of sociological or family reasons . Inter generational failure has set in because , often parents of these school leavers also failed at school and see little value in schooling . In fact it was torture sitting in classes, for years , unable to achieve at basic subjects. Why would they encourage their offspring to endure the torture as well ?
The Ministry of Ed., one of the prime villains, in all this would be very happy with you article Ele, because it takes all the blame and focus away from them.
Yeah …… once again, that Gaynor makes the best arguments that have largely caused this disaster. Min of Ed is a National Disgrace & it has been obvious for 20/30 years now. Out politicians are pathetic.
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