Plea for kids’ voices in education reform
Plans to shake up New Zealand’s education system – including a younger starting age and online schools – should be stopped in their tracks until children can have their say, Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft said.
The Government’s Education (Update) Amendment Bill came under fire from submitters at Parliament’s education and science select committee yesterday, with Becroft describing the lack of consultation with Kiwi kids as ‘‘astonishing’’.
The bill, part of the largest revamp of the education system in nearly 30 years, includes plans to create ‘‘communities of online learning’’ (COOLS) – online schools which can be run by a school, tertiary provider or approved industry.
It would also allow schools to implement a ‘‘cohort entry’’ policy, meaning children could start school as early as four depending on what their parents wanted.
Becroft, a former Youth Court judge, slammed the Government for its lack of consultation with children, saying the reforms should be stopped until their voices were heard.
‘‘It is frankly . . . astonishing that this bill has been prepared and reached this far without any demonstrable occurrence or example of consultation with children.’’
It was children who would be most affected by the changes, and seeking their views was ‘‘not gimmicky [or] some tick-box approach for appearances’’, Becroft said.
‘‘Child-centred policy adds richness, it adds quality to the decision making, and it is the right thing to do.’’
He was also concerned that the bill did not address ‘‘what has been a glaring sore for 26 years’’ – the lack of a prompt, cheap and independent appeals process for board of trustees decisions, such as the exclusion of a student.
‘‘I can’t think of any other area of rights in New Zealand where there’s not such a quick appeal right, whether it’s employment law or criminal law – even Super 18 rugby players who are suspended can have that decision appealed within a week.
‘‘Why do we not provide the same safeguard for children?’’
NZ Principals’ Federation president Whetu Cormack told the committee his organisation was ‘‘uneasy’’ with some of the proposed changes, and believed COOLS (online schools) would help private providers to make profits rather than improving children’s learning.
‘‘We know that children learn best when they are with adults who support their learning, who provide feedback, who enable them to develop their own learning pathways.
‘‘When we think about children working in isolation, sitting at kitchen tables by themselves, they have very little feedback.’’
NZEI Te Riu Roa president Lynda Stuart said there was real concern about the lack of consultation with the education sector, which did not want the current curriculum to ‘‘narrow to targets at the whim of a minister’’.
Stuart was also concerned at plans to change the school entry age, which ‘‘really seems to be for administrative convenience and not in the best interests of children’’.
‘‘We’ve got a really proud, strong tradition . . . of celebrating every child’s initiation, transition . . . into our school from our early childhood sector and that is really important.’’
It was important to remember that five was already an early age for children to start formal schooling, she said.
PPTA president Jack Boyle said his organisation was opposed to COOLS, with fully online education not supported by any evidence. ’’We’ve looked,’’ he added.
‘‘The policy is so rushed as to be slipshod . . . it is not connected with international evidence, nor is it connected to the current context of education in New Zealand.’’
Boyle said the PPTA was concerned COOLS could follow charter schools in being unaccountable ‘‘to the minister, the ministry and the public‘‘. – Fairfax NZ