Do we need to change the education system?

Email
Print

Do we need to change the education system?

3News NZ

Just how much change does our education system need?

Just how much change does our education system need?

Just last month the Government took a hammering on its plan to shake-up our education system.

It quickly backed down on plans to increase class sizes but Education Minister Hekia Parata has announced she'll meet education leaders later this month to discuss ways to measuring teacher performance and improve student achievement

But already John Key has suggested the introduction for school league tables - a suggestion he hasn't discussed with the Education Minister, and one that goes against the advice and judgement of educators.

So just how much change does our education system need? And how easy is it to compare schools anyway?

Watch the video for Lachlan Forsyth’s full report.

Post a Comment

Before commenting, please take the time to read our moderation guide


(Won't be published)



Comments

24/06/2012 9:17:10 a.m.

Greg wrote:

If Charter schools are so great and can achieve such high outcomes without having qualified teachers, then why does the government spin graduate qualified teachers for public schools. The holes inthe spin speak are astounding, why are none of our so called political reporters pointing them out. University entry is capped and foreign student numbers are increasing. Kids are failing because they see no future. National has no mandate for educational changes, we need a snap election for this educational paradigm shift.

20/06/2012 8:52:12 p.m.

Lisa wrote:

league tables wont do anything, it comes down to parents supporting their kids in their learning to make sure they are doing well, not leaving everything up to the teachers. the only thing that needs to change is that kids need to learn respect and teachers need to be able to hold power in the classroom and be able to discipline the disruptive kids accordingly

20/06/2012 11:31:57 a.m.

D.G.L Bobb wrote:

What will league tables tell us what is not already known? Schools in high socio-economic areas will do well, while schools dealing with children from less privileged areas will score badly. How will league tables improve the quality of classroom instruction? What criteria apart from test score results will be evaluated in school assessment? What special insight makes politicians more able to assess educational needs of children than professional educators? In which countries can we see the positive effect on education being achieved through the adoption of league tables? Does teaching aimed directly at improving test scores constitute "education.?" Are Ministers of Education themselves well educated?

20/06/2012 10:36:47 a.m.

James wrote:

This clip showed New Zealand having a great education system-5th ranked in OECD(depending on which survey). Forgotten is the fact OECD countries have had their education systems dumbed down over the past thirty years. In England for example the sciences are nearly defunct, and History is so ravaged by PC it is unrecognizable. New Zealand is no different.So to say we are fifth in the oecd means nothing. In fact the average Indian child who attends school would cream the average OECD pupil when it comes to basics. The problem is Teacher Unions are to full of ideologues who themselves are a product of our education system.They have no perspective on what real education is. Then we have gutless governments who are terrified of the former,and produce policy on the hop. The Government should have tackled the Ministry of Education first and had a ACC type clean out there before tackling the Teacher Unions. Ask yourselves these questions.Why are our university rankings slipping?Why do Universities have to run remedial classes? Why does a person i know make a good living writing University papers for students and professors who can't string a sentence together?He sometimes has to telephone them because he can't understand their emails. And why did the pre school teacher look at me in a patronizing tone when i told her my four year old child could read fluently and say"yes,but does she understand what she is reading?" Obviously she does or she couldn't read. Maybe the teacher should have asked whether my child understood the context of the text she was reading. We have an education crisis and parents need to wake up.

20/06/2012 10:15:13 a.m.

local kiwi wrote:

seems to be a great deal of fear-mongering over any changes to the education system. If a change doesnt work it can alwayd be revised and improved. Parents are ultimately responsible for their childrens education not the teachers or the government We are provided with the base tools to educate our kids and then we as parents have to put in the extra time and tools our kids need

19/06/2012 11:29:56 p.m.

Cyb_ed wrote:

Will NZ become like Australia. At the start of each year masses of children, particularly lower achieving students, change schools to go to the ones that appear to rank higher on league tables. This means the government suddenly has to build new classrooms to accomodate the growth. Meanshile the lower achieving school then improves it's rating as it has lost a bunch of lower achieving students, while the high achieving school drops in the league tables because of the influx of lower achieving students. The folowing year the new schools at the top of the tables getthe influx and the students who are transitioning from school to school each year lose their peer group friends each year, leading to social isolation and the inability to sustain long term friendships. Food for thought,

19/06/2012 8:48:17 p.m.

Interested Parent wrote:

It needs to be changed, my child has been verbally assulted, and its just terror at his school, he is being bullied by his teachers and it is unacceptable, big changes needed, to the whole system.