Chris Hipkins conceded that, if Labour were to win the election, he would scrap the one hour of reading, writing and maths for primary school kids.
It's weird to me that Labour wants to do this because, anecdotally, I keep hearing from parents that they can see the difference Erica Stanford's reforms in primary education are making.
Often, the story I hear is that one child started school before the reforms were introduced and struggled to learn to read, while the second child started school after structured literacy, structured numeracy and the one hour of reading, writing and maths were introduced, and they just nailed everything immediately. The difference is stark for parents.
The data says the reforms, especially structured literacy, are working. A couple of weeks ago, I was doing a speech with a guy who's quite deep in politics but he's also a dad and he said the single greatest threat, in his mind, of Labour winning the election is that Labour would undo all of the education reforms Erica Stanford has introduced and stop our kids from learning properly again.
And I agree with him.
The big threat is that she's only halfway through what she's doing, and it all stops in its tracks and gets unwound. In fact, I agree with him to the extent that I think National may want to go harder on exactly that point.
National is not winning on the economy because it doesn't have a credible story to tell when the cost of living is hurting as much as, if not more than, it did before, and when Nicola is spending far more than Grant ever did. But National does have a serious point of difference, and a good point of difference, on education.
It is not an exaggeration to say Erica Stanford is the best education minister we've had in decades, if not ever, in this country. Kids are finally learning to read and do maths again. She took phones out of schools and it's made a huge difference. By the way, even Chris Hipkins said he wouldn't get rid of that. He acknowledges how successful it has been.
It is genuinely scary for some parents to think Labour would stop the hour of reading, writing and maths while also keeping the disaster that is NCEA.
National should be using education a hell of a lot more than they are in their campaign.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
Exactly.
Sickening to hear Hipkins this morning say that he will destroy Charter schools again, lying that he will not implement mummy's radical education theories,, and publicly stating that he was in favor of co- governance.
HDPA: I agree with you about Stanford.
I'm a Boomer, born very soon after WW2. Just recently, my spouse and I were discussing the education issue. In our view, she's the best Minister of Education, possibly in our lifetimes, certainly in many, many years. The Natz need to make a much bigger issue of this than they have to date. I'm not at all surprised to hear that parents up and down the country agree with her reforms. I'd be amazed if they didn't.
I'm an ACT voter, and I'm pinning my hopes on the current coalition being re-elected. I expect that the Natz will get a lower percentage of the vote, but I'm hoping like hell that Stanford gets back in, and keeps her Education portfolio. She's MP for East Coast Bays, I believe. I hope the voters there can see her value to us all.
Hipkins is in thrall to the Unions, and on this issue the teachers unions in particular.
To coin a phrase, Those who can, do, those who cannot, teach, those who cannot teach join the teachers union.
'Children are about 25% of our population, but 100% of our future' is a quote , educationalists use to promote the enormous importance of getting our schooling right .
There are very many things wrong with National , but as Heather says Erica Standford may be our very best Minister of Ed.ever. Just a pity she hasn't got rid of the woke and Maorification out of education .
The progressive education of the left places very little value on teaching the basics and more on their ideology of child centered education which has students deciding how , what and when they learn . Over and over research says this just doesn't work . Our international test results confirm this .We have slumped in all subjects this century with progressive ideas. Only with the introduction of more of Erica's structured learning will things turn around .The consequences of not doing this will be more crime and more welfare dependence. Gaynor .
Anon@11.35am: "Just a pity she hasn't got rid of the woke and Maorification out of education."
I regret this as well. But there's hope, so long as she's re-elected and keeps the Education portfolio. I think common sense will prevail in the end.
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