Biggest education reform in decades planned by Government
How students are taught, from early childhood through to postsecondary school, will be completely overhauled under the biggest educational reform New Zealand has seen in almost three decades.
The education system known as Tomorrow’s Schools, which was introduced in 1989 under thenPrime Minister and Education Minister David Lange, will soon be yesterday’s schools.
It is understood Education Minister Chris Hipkins will release a three-year work programme today that details extensive overhauls as part of a coalition agreement between Labour and NZ First to develop an ‘‘enduring 30 year approach to education’’.
A review of Tomorrow’s Schools, school property, early childhood education, polytechs, and hosting two national education summits are understood to be some of the Government’s plans for this term alone.
Under the last government Hipkins was a big opposer of National’s focus on standardisation and measurement in schools and the red tape it created for teachers.
It’s understood Hipkins’ plan is to review the system, from early childhood education through to tertiary, which is likely the reason he took on all of the education portfolios, rather than having a Tertiary Education Minister.
Hipkins has been a long time advocate of tidying up the transition for students from one part of the education system to the next – right up until a student is employed.
The focus of his review would likely be to put in place an education model that is more reflective of the 21st century.
The idea of Tomorrow’s Schools, a decentralised system, was to give schools more autonomy by introducing school boards of trustees and shifting substantial financial and administrative responsibilities to them.
While this led to diversity in what schools delivered and communities got more say in how their children were taught, a negative consequence was increased competition amongst schools for students rather than improving overall education results.
Such a significant shift in the way students are taught would require big legislative changes.
Hipkins has already introduced the Education Amendment Bill to allow for changes made as part of the Government’s 100 day plan.
It’s likely that bill would need to be amended again as more changes are implemented and ultimately a new Education Act would be required to fully capture the new direction the Government is signalling for schools.
The new Education Act would likely be in place by 2020 to be used as a platform at the next election.
The school property portfolio is also on the radar – Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern signalled in her first formal speech in the House earlier this year there would be ‘‘a lot of time in this House to talk about what we’ve discovered in the school properties portfolio’’.
The Crown’s $30 billion school network is understood to be riddled with a backlog of urgent upgrades and rebuilds that haven’t been dealt with.
It’s expected a significant amount of money would need to be set aside at the Budget in May and in future budgets to start dealing with some of the issues.
The review, understood to be part of Hipkins’ work plan, would likely outline how to deal with outdated and crumbling classrooms and ensuring every school had modern learning environments.
All of this would come at a significant cost to the Crown as Labour, NZ First and the Green Party all oppose any further use of public private partnerships.
Any building programme would likely be set out ahead of the 2020 election. It’s understood the first step in the reforms, reviewing Tomorrow’s Schools, would be carried out by a taskforce with terms of reference signed off by Cabinet as early as this month.