The comments of Secretary for Education Lesley Longstone, have provoked some discussion recently:
“The system is still underperforming for Maori learners and Pasifika learners, and learners from communities with significant social and economic challenges. While our education system continues to underperform for these learners, we are not entitled to call ourselves world class.”
Commentators have been quick to defend or criticise the “education system” – a storm in a teacup that probably would have received much more attention without the somewhat bigger storm going on elsewhere.
Some of the commentary has been nonsense, and this anonymous editorial in The Herald is particularly egregious:
Educators exposed as guilty of complacency
Secretary for Education’s comments must be heard.
Education commentators have been aghast this week that the Secretary for Education does not consider our education system “world class”. .. When she signed off those bloated sentences she might not have foreseen the fury they would arouse. After all, it is hardly news that Maori and Pacific Island children are not doing well enough. And the idea that this means the system is less than “world class” is not entirely hers. It reflects the ministry’s stated goal: “A world-leading education system that equips all New Zealanders with the knowledge, skills, and values to be successful citizens in the 21st century.”
But it is refreshing to have a recruit from England in charge.
Ms Longstone will know our education establishment regards itself as second to none in the world. The practitioners pride themselves on the equity of the system, its flexible, non-prescriptive curriculum, its examinations that let pupils advance at their own pace and give them second chances.
They tell us our system is admired worldwide for these features and that our catch-up programmes such as reading recovery are particularly envied and copied. If these programmes have not improved the performance of some groups sufficiently, that must be a measure of the disadvantage these children have to overcome, not a failure of the education system.
Yes, the anonymous author’s dripping sarcasm aside, that is the case. Poverty and educational under-achievement go hand in hand the world over (much as the Nats would like to deny it). Here in NZ report after report after report – not from educators but from those concerned with child welfare – have all made the same points. Here’s one from the Children’s Commissioner, which begins its “executive summary” as follows:
Children have the right to a decent standard of living; a standard of living that allows them to live healthy lives free of hardship, to achieve their full potential and to participate fully in society. Poverty limits children’s daily lives and their opportunities and exposes them to the risks of illness, social and emotional damage, and poor educational attainment. Poverty experienced in the early years or for long periods casts a shadow over the future …
The sad fact of the matter is that educational achievement in NZ is very much a matter of race / socioeconomic status:
We come seventh in the world in the PISA (Programme for International Student Achievement) rankings that compare national performance in reading, science and maths. But Parata says that once you disaggregate the PISA scores, Pakeha students are second in the world and Maori are 34th and Pasifika are 44th.
It isn’t the education system that is failing Maori and Pasifika kids – it is society, it is politics, it is all of us. It is idiot commentators who would rather scapegoat “complacent” teachers than confront the real issues. We certainly have a world class education system. The fact that not every child can take advantage of it is our real failing and our shame.