Alwyn Poole: Re pre-school.....

Again – some recognition and help re pre-school but the Minister still misses the key point.

This week Erica Stanford made an announcement to expand a programme to enhance oral language skills in pre-school children. For those it will reach, it appears positive.

The issue is the “those it will reach” part.

From the article:

“In 2025, 36% of children aged 0-4 were in ECE, with participation rising with age; 83% of 4-year-olds attended ECE for 10 hours or more, with 43% attending for 20 hours or more.”

“That is one of the most difficult policy problems,” Stanford said.

“How do you influence parenting to make sure that you’re doing the single most important thing? Speaking to your child, using rich language, inviting a response, not using baby language, talking to them all the time.

“The more language that young people are exposed to, the more words they hear, the better their oral language skills will be, and they don’t even have to be able to talk yet.”

But there is no Minister for Parenting, nor is Stanford suggesting one.

“Every single mother and every single father wants the best for their children. They just don’t always know [how].

“How do we get that into homes is a tough one. I’ve got the compulsory education system, and what we’re doing with these reforms is the very best we can do when they walk in that front door at age 5.”

She has noted the issues:

– many children are arriving at 5yo developmentally well behind.

– parents want the best for their children but don’t know how.

– many children are no where near an ECE and it is also likely that many of those children will attend school poorly.

But she misses the most obvious and effective solution – we need a Crown Entity for Parenting to fully inform all parents of best practice so they do know how and all children can be reached. We have Ministries for Women, Pasifik Peoples, Ethnic Communities, Youth, Maori Development, Seniors but nothing for such a foundational, and problematic, part of our society.

Stanford noted:

“International assessment results from 2018, she said, showed New Zealand with “the strongest relationship between socio-economic background and educational performance of all of the English comparative-speaking countries – more than the US, more than Australia, more than Canada, more than the UK”.

“Things have been getting worse. That’s what we’re trying to address. But it’s going to take many, many years to turn this enormous ship around.”

Properly addressing and supporting parenting in NZ will be more effective and would not take “many, many years.”

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 sourced HERE