Dame Elizabeth Rata: Episode 3 - A National Education System - Free, Compulsory, Secular

In the video below Episode 3 describes the free and compulsory features of the national system established by the 1877 Education Act. Achieving the difficult balance between state control and individual freedom is the ongoing creative tension of liberal democracy. This episode shows it in action. A distinctive New Zealand culture is emerging – one free from the constraints of tradition seeking to balance idealism and pragmatism. This striving for civil society's balance can be seen in the Act's attendance regulations.

Dame Elizabeth Rata: Episode 2 - Early Schools, Intermarriage, Nation-building 1815-1877

In the video below Episode Two explains how English became accepted as the language of national unity. The Māori language remained in constant use. There were 42 Māori language newspapers, Māori travelled the country with books and slates, and attended the Māori instruction missionary schools. Literacy, in either or both languages, provided individuals with a new status. Waaka Te Huia's work as a paid scribe, writing in Māori, illustrates the modern man for the new world.

Dame Elizabeth Rata: The History Of New Zealand Education, Building A Democratic Nation.

In the video below Episode One describes how 19th century Māori and European alike wanted the peace and prosperity only possible in a modern nation – New Zealand. This desire had produced the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and the 1852 Constitution Act. In the 1870s a standardised school system provided the knowledge, skills and aptitudes needed for citizens to fulfil the promise of those two founding documents – the creation of a democratic unified nation.

Dame Elizabeth Rata: History of New Zealand Education Promo

Why did New Zealand have one of the best education systems in the world from the 19th century to the 1970s.

Why was that remarkable legacy deliberately dismantled? What can be done to restore quality education?

I’m making thirty-nine narrated podcast episodes using historical documents and photos to try and answer this question.