National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation
NZPF’s conference 2015 presented a line-up of key note public support then in comes the political solution. The ‘crisis’ is speakers of stellar proportions. They engaged us; they challenged framed as teachers not doing their job properly, teacher unions us; and they startled us! protecting them, not being accountable and not having proper Professor Meg Maguire demonstrated the harsh reality of standards. Then in come the standards in literacy and numeracy global education reforms which, in a nutshell, can be summed up and suddenly we have a standardised measure of a school’s as the decimation of the public education system in the UK. ‘In ‘performance’. All you do now is set the target to be met. Of course England we haven’t got a [public] schools with a higher proportion system left,’ she said. of challenged learners won’t hit one in five children are failing Earlier this year I visited the target, so they are closed as the UK to attend the National and . . . students are leaving under-performers and turned Association of Head Teachers into private charter schools. As (NAHT) C onference. The school and can’t read, write the number of charter schools atmosphere was damp with or do maths. grows, so the number of charter g l o om a s s c h o o l l e a d e r s schools grows more! Eventually expressed their frustration and despair at how the oppression of public schooling exists only for those students that charter reforms was dragging them and their schools down. Assessment schools refuse to enrol. and so called ‘performance’ are the all-consuming focus and as Maguire said, ‘ . . . children face more of the same, year after year: assessment preparation, then assessment, then repeat’. School leadership is a statistical exercise in crunching data and preparing children for the next test. Both teachers and children are constantly stressed about passing tests so that their school is not labelled an ‘under-performer’ and closed down by the Office for standards in education (Ofsted) and replaced by a private Total Teaching PD Opportunities Academy (charter) school. in July/August 2016 If that all sounded too horrifying to be real, we then had Professor Alma Harris, also from the UK, repeating the same Neil MacKay, acclaimed international presenter and educator, messages, followed by Professor Diane Ravitch from the USA. returns to New Zealand in 2016 to offer whole school/cluster Ravitch approached the reform agenda even more savagely, based professional development around his concept of Total refusing to dignify it with the word ‘reform’ and instead called it Teaching. as it is ‘ . . . it’s about eliminating public education!’ If you missed This PD equips teachers with just enough RTLB/RTLit skills to “notice and adjust” for students without labels but with clear the conference then read her book Reign of Error, the hoax of learning needs in areas like Dyslexia, ADHD and High Functioning the privatisation movement and the danger to America’s public Autism. school’, or follow her blog. Comments from his 2015 Workshop Tour Ravitch is an educational historian, appointed to public office A Principal writes, “Already I have had several of my staff comment by President George W Bush and once supported the ‘No child how positive, refreshing and inspiring the day was and that they left behind’ and charter schools policies. She later thoroughly have already implemented teaching strategies in their lessons researched both charter schools and the No child left behind this week related to what Neil shared.” policy and concluded they would not bring about improvement An RTLB writes, “The teachers were buzzing afterwards and back at school and I hear lots of talk of change and follow up which is in American education. She is a woman who has seen all sides what we want – a paradigm shift and change at the chalk face.” of this political agenda and is now committed to exposing its globally destructive forces. Individual schools and clusters are invited to make contact She outlined the steps that politicians take in order to power Neil at info@actiondyslexia.co.uk to discuss bookings this agenda. First they manufacture the ‘crisis’, as we have all for 2016. Final date for bookings will be end of November heard in New Zealand with ‘one in five children are failing’ 2016. Neil is also happy to discuss events for parents and and ‘ . . . students are leaving school and can’t read, write or do conferences. maths.’ Even though it is not based in truth, once the ‘crisis’ gets More details at www.actiondyslexia.co.uk
Charter schools stand to make profits, as we have already seen As the TPPA group continues its debates and negotiations, in New Zealand. They are businesses. So it is not surprising Ravitch has a suggestion to help combat the march of education that global chains of charter schools will be interested in privatisation in New Zealand. She talked of ‘The Opt-Out getting access to New Zealand to set up more charter schools Movement’ which has gained traction particularly in New here. One avenue that could create that opening is the Trans York. The movement is driven by parents who will not allow Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), between New Zealand, their children to be tested. It has grown from 60,000 last year to Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, United 200,000 this year and is beginning to have influence. Further, States, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada. Many have criticised she recommends using social media like twitter and facebook the TPPA because it favours multi-national corporations to build momentum around opposing the destruction of public and is undemocratic. It allows education in New Zealand. foreign corporations to override Charter schools stand to For such action to be successful the decisions of democratically requires the support of your elected Governments. So even make profits, as we have already parent communities. Many of if our current Government, or you have been requesting the indeed any future Government seen in New Zealand. They are presentations from conference did have a change of heart about businesses. to share with your Boards of the efficacy of charter schools they Trustees and with your parents. could not under TPPA rules stop foreign owned charter school All of the conference presentations have now been posted chains being established in New Zealand. If you think that won’t on our NZPF website and our NZ Principal magazine editor happen you may want to do some further research! has posted a full report covering all of the conference speakers In my opening speech to conference 2015, I asked, ‘what is on the home page of the website. Use these resources liberally. the purpose of education today?’ Reflecting on that speech Share them with as many of your parents as possible. That way, now, I might have suggested that one purpose for education, and only that way will we have any chance of saving our public alongside creating democratically active citizens, could be to school system and our children’s future. train professional educators in education policy making so that they can work with the politicians as co-constructors of policy and not just be the inheritors of it.
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