Horowhenua Chronicle: School Curriculum
I remember back to my Waiopehu College days when each form class I was in would have a good cross-section of skilled teenagers. Some students liked classes involving crunching numbers, some liked sciences and others languages. Some also liked doing practical stuff like PE (physical education) or workshop (metal and woodwork) training. The odd exceptional student would shine in all of these subjects, but most of us would have subjects that we loved or were passionate about and others that we dreaded.
It’s important that the school curriculum has a broad focus to provide subjects that keep students motivated to achieve. What’s becoming apparent is we have a shortage of skilled people that can fill the gaps in a variety of industries like building, plumbing, machinery and textiles to name just a few. Some teenagers prefer ‘hands on’ subjects, rather than just sitting at a desk.
The problem we have in New Zealand is that 30,000 kids wag (are truant) school each day and 4000 are leaving school before the official leaving age each year. These are some of the big challenges that need addressing in our education system.
In a growing economy, with an ageing population and a tight labour market, we need every student able to leave school able to read and write.
Right now Horowhenua is growing, with strong residential and commercial building activity. Developers are finding it hard to attract enough builders as well as the other service people that go with erecting a new dwelling. To put it simply we need more adequately skilled workers to meet employer demands.
Part of the problem is that some of these fundamental, practical skills are under-resourced in our schools and are struggling to attract trades people to teach these subjects.
National Leader John Key has some ideas on how to address the skills shortage in New Zealand. These include:
- Fixing the technology curriculum by ensuring it contains references to allow students to make, build and produce practical items
- Urgent action to respond to the technology teaching crisis. Schools across New Zealand are cancelling or reducing trades or skills teaching because they can’t employ teachers qualified to take the classes. (People with advanced level trade certificates have to take time out to complete a year long course to qualify as a teacher – not an attractive proposition if you have a family or a mortgage.)
- National is prepared to work with local businesses/industries and teachers to make it easier for schools to find, pay and employ people to take their trades classes
Pilot a school-based apprenticeship programme.
National is committed to addressing New Zealand’s skill shortages and equipping our future workforce with relevant skills that ensure we can maintain the growth momentum in Horowhenua with our own people.