New entrants lack basic skills, school teachers say

A growing number of children are starting school less able to concentrate or manage basic tasks like getting ready for lessons, teachers say.

‘‘In my first year [of teaching] I had everyone reading by the end of the year,’’ a new entrant teacher told Stuff. ‘‘Now we are just trying to get them into the mode of how to behave in a school.’’

The teachers asked for anonymity, to ensure their schools were not singled out as failing to meet their students’ needs.

Another new entrant teacher said she had seen ‘‘significant’’ changes, pre-dating the pandemic. With a rough rule of thumb of a minute’s concentration per year of age, most new entrants should be able to sit and listen for five minutes, she said. ‘‘But that is becoming less and less. Attention spans are much shorter.’’

She also expected new entrants to follow a simple set of instructions. For example: take your book out of your bag, find a pencil, and sit at the table. ‘‘But you ... are constantly having to tell them what to do.

‘‘Before you can start teaching children the ABC, they have to be able to learn how to find a pencil, use scissors.’’

Teachers were concerned about the knock-on effect on children’s ability to problem-solve. ‘‘There is a lack of resilience,’’ a teacher said. ‘‘They will join in an activity and give up: this is too hard, I have done it for two seconds and I’m giving up.’’

One teacher told Stuff the shift meant some new entrant teachers were changing to ‘‘kindy-style learning’’. ‘‘Catering to the kids who need to be climbing, playing with sand . . . while having space for the kids who want to learn reading and writing.’’

The teachers were not sure what was driving the changes, although they had theories: screen time, anxiety, higher needs, and busier-than-ever parents who found it easier to do things for their children than teach them basic skills.

‘‘A lot of things are done for children now and they are not learning to do it themselves,’’ one said. ‘‘Parents will carry their bag, unpack their bag.’’

According to 2018 census data, more than nine out of 10 children attend an early

‘‘Attention spans are much shorter.’’

New entrant teacher

childhood education (ECE) centre before starting primary school. An ECE head teacher told Stuff that as rising living costs pushed more parents into work, families were under enormous stress. They had less time with their children and relied more on screens as a distraction, she said.

ECEs were often relied on to pick up the slack but her sector was ‘‘in crisis’’, with crowded facilities and more children with needs not high enough to qualify for extra support, she said. Budget-stretched private

ECEs were compelled to take the maximum number of children to make their finances work, she said.

‘‘When there are 30-40 kids it doesn’t matter how many adults you get in the mix; by that point you are just making sure everyone is safe. It is just a broken system in a very busy and pressurised society. And unfortunately the losers are our children.’’

Associate professor Annette Henderson researches childhood education at Auckland University. ‘‘Everyone is in a rush and this can have flow-on effects on parenting,’’ Henderson said.

‘‘Parents can feel it takes so much time to explain self-care skills like getting themselves dressed, doing a good job brushing their teeth.’’ A child’s ability to problem-solve was an important life skill that took time to develop, Henderson said. ‘‘Children who aren’t able to do that, it may affect resilience, their self-esteem.’’ She had noticed children engaging in ‘‘negative self talk’’; ‘‘saying I am no good at anything’’.

Children should be encouraged to use screens in a constructive way, Henderson said. ‘‘Technology can be a positive tool and screens aren’t going away.

‘‘If you sit with a child and work through an activity on an iPad, that becomes a learning experience. [But] if you just give them the iPad with no direction, it is not going to help their attention develop.’’

She suggested parents carve out a regular time to problem-solve, play a game, or learn a skill (like tying their shoes) with their children.

NZ Principals’ Federation president Dr Cherie Taylor-Patel has also recognised the trend. While selfmanagement was one of the core competencies underpinning the curriculum, many parents underestimated its importance, she said.

The learning in those early years could be so subtle parents might not see it, Taylor-Patel said. For example: children staying longer at an activity showed a developing concentration.

Their crayon drawings honed fine motor skills they would later use to wield a pencil, and playing on the jungle gym developed the core strength required to throw balls in sports games.