Editor
As Philip Harding has stated in his president’s column, this in secondary schools will raise performance levels. As highis election year! Brace yourselves for the triennial avalanche of stakes events, they generate more testing, less creative teaching, bribes and baby kissing blitzes. An education ‘lolly scramble’ has obvious grade inflation, less “stretching” of brighter students, already ensued one from each of the three major political parties less cooperation between schools, lower achievement levels and and no doubt there will be more to follow. larger gaps between high and low-performing schools.’ The government’s is the largest lolly of the lot so far. In These are not just the opinions or views of Warwick Elley. its simplest form they want to pay some principals and They are conclusions that can be drawn from a broad selection of teachers more for telling other principals and teachers what research both in New Zealand and overseas. Another academic to do. Good luck with that Associate Professor John Clark one! Had the profession itself on p.29 argues the case for been invited to develop a plan It is a sad reality but politicians abolishing national standards, for enhancing the quality no longer listen to or connect with people, drawing on further research of school leadership and evidence to build his argument. classroom teaching to the tune except during election year. The obvious questions are, of $359m, the outcome may why would the government go have been very different. There would have been a meeting of best ahead with a policy that runs counter to what they are trying to evidence, best research and broad experience carefully crafted achieve and to sound educational research? and why didn’t they into a workable professional development programme to achieve ask the academics and the profession to work with them to find across the board improvements. We would have got much closer ways to help underachieving kids? to a superbly led, connected and supported profession which It is because the over-arching agenda is far more important would lift the achievement levels of children right across the than any underachievement issue. The policy fits the agenda country. Alas, we now have a half-baked, clumsy, unsustainable to shift education out of the public and further into the private initiative that the Ministry and school leaders are expected to sector. It fits perfectly alongside other educational initiatives, magically cobble into a gold star programme which the entire such as Charter schools, which also did not consider the profession will heartily embrace. Good luck with that one too! professionals’ advice. It also fits with the ‘international recipe’ Life hasn’t always been like this. There was a time when for privatisation of public education systems, the Global governments operated rather more democratically. Professionals Education Reform Movement – that is the real target for the were invited by political representatives to contribute their ideas government. to policy development. This was particularly the case when policy What is particularly disconcerting about the latest would affect their practice. Now of course politicians don’t see announcement is that it has been made with utter disregard themselves as representatives. They are career politicians who, for work being undertaken simultaneously by the Ministry. It once elected, think they have a mandate to dictate as they please. is one thing to be ignoring the professionals and their advice They employ advisors and spin doctors to help construct, then but quite another to be ignoring one’s own Ministry. It seems push policies that fit a preconceived agenda. Often the policies that the Prime Minister, in announcing this new scheme to pay bear no relationship to the real world of practice. expert principals and teachers more to help others perform There is no better example than recent education policy better, has completely forgotten that the Ministry has a review formation. Take national standards for example. Government of professional development underway and a second review of developed a standards assessment policy in the absence of any statutory intervention in train. Surely the work of both these consultation with the profession, using the rationale that they groups will be profoundly affected by this latest announcement wanted to lift the success rate of underachievers. Had they really – yet the Prime Minister did not see fit to inform or consult with wanted to lift achievement the profession would have steered the membership of either working party before announcing his them in a very different direction. An article in this very issue plans. p.10 entitled ‘More bad news for national standards’ by esteemed It is a sad reality but politicians no longer listen to or connect academic Warwick Elley, points out the folly of standards based with people, except during election year. Their relevancy and assessment and how it has consistently led to lower achievement credibility has diminished considerably. Is it any wonder then of students in countries that have adopted it. Elley states, that the number of those New Zealanders exercising their right ‘Neither National Standards in primary schools nor NCEA to vote is also in decline?