Our school standards

National Standards.

National’s current education policies make good sound bites, but if we look closely we can see a number of serious problems.

Firstly although every child is of equal worth, every child is not created equal in terms of ability. This means that national standards must by definition be too hard for some children to achieve and very easy for others. Now children who struggle will be labelled as below or well below. In my experience children who perceive their academic struggle as failure disengage from education rather than try harder to succeed.

Second, it seems that Anne Tolley believes schools do not currently assess their students learning, or report openly to parents. I have never been at a school that cannot report on the students who struggle and require extra support. Nor have I heard of a New Zealand school that doesn’t extensively evaluate and assess students’ learning as this forms the basis of planning for teachers.

Neither teachers nor principals have an issue with assessing or reporting, what is at issue is the idea that all children must achieve academically at the same level regardless of their ability or pre-school experiences, or they will be labelled as failures. No-one is against raising standards for all children, whether low or high achievers, but similar policies in the UK and USA have been unmitigated disasters.

The $26million being spent to sell National standards to the country could fund 1500 full time teacher aides even if they were paid $15 per hour, which very few are, most are on or just above minimum wage. Teacher aides help children with a range of social and academic learning and form an important part of the support system for children who are struggling at school. Just a thought!