Education Policy
Our future lies in education. Therefore, it should be a worry to us all that our education system is currently failing one in five children, with 20% of students leaving school unable to read and write. We can’t afford to continue to let this happen.
As I get around our local primary and secondary schools, I can see that teachers are doing a great job in what are sometimes very difficult and challenging situations due to both a lack of resources and/or poor student behaviour.
I learnt recently that children are in the education system only about 15% of the time when aged from five until they leave school around 17 or 18. That means parents are the primary source of education and encouragement and role modeling in their child’s life. It also means schools shouldn’t be expected to enforce social or behavioural changes in children – I hear there are some calls for schools to teach kids manners! I do believe, though, that teachers can have a fantastic influence on some kids.
Principals generally tell me that their biggest issue is funding. Talk on funding issues is always wide and varied and traverses issues such as property funding maintenance, decile rating, computer maintenance, salaries, bureaucracy driven out of Wellington and other more general issues.
So it is no surprise that when I was visiting a school in Kapiti on Friday that the principal was pretty annoyed at the money wasted by the Ministry of Education on badges to promote Maori education. All schools were sent these badges, with the ministry expecting teachers to wear them. The principal showed me the package while I was there and I was gobsmacked that the Ministry thought these badges, featuring phases such as ‘Nice!’ and ‘Wassup!’, were a good idea and value for money.
It was National’s education spokeswoman Anne Tolley who raised wasteful spending in Parliament last week. She spent a day in the electorate with me last month visiting a number of schools, including Horowhenua College, and believes these examples of wasteful spending would be better spent to help schools and students do better.
Research shows the critical age for children to develop basic reading and writing skills is before seven years of age. That means a great deal of learning needs to be well underway in homes, in early childhood centres and in new entrant classrooms at primary schools. Parents need to be part of the child’s learning and development and for this to occur parents also need to be presented with accurate reporting.
Under National Leader John Key we have announced that we would introduce national education standards in reading, writing and maths that will measure a child’s progress. This information will be given to parents and tell them how well their child is performing.
At the other end of the spectrum we have announced a ‘trades in schools’ policy to give those teenage students that prefer to work more with their hands more options. Re-injecting trades training in secondary schools has been well received, but to make it successful we also need to work to address the technology teacher crisis. We need to create a way for builders to teach these kids without having to undergo years of training without an income.
National has many other exciting education policy announcements still to come - closer to the election.
I am excited about our future and believe our schools are trying hard to deliver the best education opportunities they can for our children. It is crucial to our country’s success that every child leaves schools with a solid education background – and is able to read and write. The success of our country depends on it.