Editor
Term three has just begun. Principals are worried about maths. The 2020s version is very similar only this time it targets staff shortages and sickness. They say teachers and students were NCEA students, declaring one third are failing numeracy and at breaking point before the end of term two and could do with reading standards and two-thirds are failing writing. some respite this term, but that’s unlikely. In the 2010s the Government’s response Winter illness will get worse and there One third of Kiwi was national standards, and we know are no relievers. how disastrous they were. Despite a new Richard Dykes, principal of Nelson students fail Education Government in 2017 abandoning the illCollege, told Radio New Zealand’s advised policy, it is fair to say our young Ministry’s new Morning Report, ‘ . . . staffing and people are right now not producing results ongoing disruption to learning will be numeracy and that would give the nation high confidence the biggest challenges as schools reopen.’ for the future. He then added, ‘That disruption is reading standard. We may have to troll back a decade or becoming cumulative and what I’m two to find the real source of our young hearing from schools from my region, but also further afield people’s unsatisfactory performance today. With the 1980s came around the South Island and New Zealand, is that they fear we’ve Tomorrow’s Schools. The policy had its flaws but also strengths got students who are already saying, “look, given the amount of and few principals would wish to relinquish the self-management disruption . . . that’s it. I’m signing out”,’ he said. structure or community connections it brought with it. Dykes went on to say that in term 2, schools had been averaging Over time, a new policy of inclusiveness was introduced and about 20 per cent of staff absent on any given day and teachers welcomed as a humane approach to give every child, irrespective had been having to give up free periods to cover classes. of their abilities or disabilities, the right to an education at their ‘If we pick up from there and carry on at that same rate there’s local school. The downside was that the policy did not come with a real concern among principals that the impact on our staff is supports or with the appropriate expertise – the psychologists, the going to be significant,’ said Dykes. trauma therapists, the counsellors, and the high-level behavioural Dykes called on the Government to announce measures to experts and speech therapists required for these young people to help students pass NCEA this year and relieve pressure for be successful. Nor have schools had access to alternative pathways, teachers and students. He also called on Government to dial short-term or long-term, which are necessary to avoid another back wide-ranging changes to the system including an overhaul alternative pathway – suspension or exclusion. of the NCEA qualification. A new national curriculum was welcomed to the stage and Dykes isn’t the only principal calling for a halt to the change heralded as the most innovative in the world. Curriculum programme. Regional principals attending the NZPF ‘Moot’ last was flying, until its wings were clipped. First to fall were the month (see full report p. 18 of this issue) were similarly calling curriculum advisors, who were subject experts and critical to for a ‘slow down’ on the curriculum refresh, the literacy and the success of teaching in our schools. Curriculum leadership in numeracy strategy, the attendance strategy, ERO’s new school the Ministry was next to wane. Our Teacher Training Colleges engagement model, Te Mahau restructure and professional closed and with them the practise-based training that had growth cycles. made our teachers such highly regarded practitioners. Then fell Principals were quite clear that these system changes would professional learning and development (PLD) which has never not be getting the attention they deserved right now. Across recovered. PLD is fragmented, elusive, inequitable and any the country, in primary and intermediate schools, the relief PLD provided by the Ministry or Teaching Council is having teacher shortage was biting deep. Many principals and deputy minimal if any impact. The stunning new curriculum never principals were taking their turn in classrooms and others were stood a chance without implementation support. It’s still waiting, rostering students to study at home to prevent whole school fifteen years later. closure. Schools are in survival mode. They are desperate for the And now, this. A pandemic, a fragile workforce, still no support Government to recruit more teachers from abroad. and now, no relievers. Hardly the time to give schools another Whilst Rome is burning, the New Zealand Initiative (formerly literacy/numeracy bashing. But if we want to keep teachers and the Round Table) has tuned its fiddle to pound out an old favourite. make teaching an attractive career, it might be time we started The song became popular in the 2010s and is called ‘One in Five is supporting and developing those teachers and principals we Failing’. Yes, one in five Kiwi kids is failing in reading writing and have got.