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Proposed league tables trouble Greens

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Proposed league tables trouble Greens

3News NZ

Catherine Delahunty

Catherine Delahunty

The Government has got another battle on its hands over education.

After a backdown on class sizes, the Prime Minister has expressed he is keen on controversial league tables, which would rank primary schools students' achievement based on data collected from national standards.

But the Greens' Catherine Delahunty says John Key is clearly not thinking straight.

“The problem with national standards as basis for league tables is it’s not a robust evidence base, so what you're getting is a cheap, superficial look at some figures which won’t really tell you what that school is going to be like for your child,” says Ms Delahunty.

Education Minister Hekia Parata says consultations will take place next month.

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Comments

20/06/2012 7:51:26 a.m.

Mike wrote:

Take measures of education in NZ.

One general report of 'Education' has us 3rd in the oecd. - sounds good?

Another for reading ability in the oecd sees us last. Thats worse than not good, its piss poor!

Teachers are very selective in which they chose to use.

League tables if done extensively will allow better targeting of students and teachers. In business the more information available, the better. In politics, the more information the better. But education, tecahers dont want parents to be well informed, nor for students and teachers to be measured.

Currently the most under funded students in NZ are the achievers who are being held back by the system. If your child goes to a high decile school, your child is less important and will receive less funding. If your child is achieving then they will have bigger class sizes and be less funded.

This is pure support of failure. If we had a level playing field in education we would not have this failure bias. I went to a school which was a low decile school which didn't give achieving students a fair go. The years have moved on and the education system hasn't really changed. There has been cosmetic changes, but achievers are penalised in preference of failures, and high decile schools are penalised in funding for low.

The league table will also show high performing teachers. This will allow the high performers in teaching to be looked at, and see what they are doing and if such teaching can be made more widespread.

Often its purely the attitude of the teacher. Eg one Teacher I had equiv of year 12, the school was underfunded at the time (and short 4 teachers, roll over 1750) and so we had an unqualified teacher teaching us at the time, and she only qualified to teach us around September of the year. But she was getting qualified at the same time as teaching, had a great attitude which made her teaching energetic and very good

If you have an oppinion, make it, debate the oppinion not the person.

19/06/2012 5:31:29 p.m.

Carlos wrote:

Real Life seems to trouble the Greens ?... ...they also have no constituency seats, and are non-patriots.

19/06/2012 2:53:15 p.m.

vicki wrote:

@ Mike once again you seem to be talking about your opinion, no fact there. You must be a wealthy person to have such views. I suggest you study some history and politics so you can understand why some people are less fortunate than you. Sad to see such backward views in our lovely little country.

19/06/2012 7:35:45 a.m.

Mike wrote:

To find if a child needs help, first you must actually measure them.

To find if a teacher needs help, first you must actually measure them.

To find if a school needs help, first you must actually measure them.

Take low decile schools as an example. Low decile schools get more funding per student, and yet they get less performance. ie evidence that more funding is less performance. While higher decile schools get less funding, and yet perfrom more? More is less, and less is more - the exact opposite of what the teachers and Labour/Greens are telling us.

Want better education for your child? Teachers will tell you send them where they get more funding, ie low decile schools. Parents tend to feel instruction over destruction is more important, and that higher decile schools, which will cost parents more to send their children to is better. not only does it cost time and money to send children to schools further away, the higher decile schools regularly cost more in uniforms, more for education as unlike low decile schools, they get less funding. Often higher decile will see less school fights/bullying/willful damage.

Private schools on the other side, get the least public funding of any education in NZ, and yet they are popular and many of NZ's best acheivers come from private schools. One reason private schools are so expensive is the lack of government funding. We should have a level playing field, not this no-achievers get the most funding system we have currently while the achievers are forgotten and under funded. Oh wait, our whole welfare system is the same where bludgers get the most funding while everyone else gets less ... And the bludgers children go to low decile schools for the next generation. You dont need an education when the family way of life tells the children that the state will provide ...