Anti-union rant in The Herald

Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, June 8th, 2015 - 72 comments
Categories: education, schools, Unions - Tags: , , ,

An anonymous editorial in The Herald this morning really is atrocious:

Mediocrity rules under school plan

More than two years have passed since the Government announced an impressive plan for improving schools by paying them to work more closely together. They were to form clusters under an executive principal and share their best staff who would be lead teachers in their subject. A pot of $349 million was added to the education budget.

This “impressive plan” had several problems with it. It takes the best teachers out of their classrooms and tangles them up in new layers of bureaucracy. It ignores certain fundamentals of good teaching (context and building and ongoing relationship). NZ principals described it as unworkable. It didn’t work in the UK. None the less, schools worked with the government in good faith to try and create a workable scheme.

Two years on, a watered down version of the plan appears to be getting under way. About 10 per cent of schools have formed “communities”, not clusters, to meet regularly, share information and compare data. The typical community includes just one or two secondary schools and the rest are intermediates and primaries. It looks like a vertical integration of feeder schools rather than the cross-fertilisation of education at each level that the original plan envisaged.
…
Hekia Parata must be disappointed with the 10 per cent uptake of her plans to date. She admits she is disappointed that Auckland Grammar, which had joined a community of schools, has since walked away. Headmaster Tim O’Connor said the group’s focus did not align with Grammar’s plans.

If 90% of schools have rejected the scheme they do so on the basis of an assessment of educational needs, not “interference” by unions. I’m guessing that Auckland Grammar is not exactly a hotbed of leftie liberal activisim. However, our editorialist feels compelled to conclude:

The original plan was not “just about money”, as the PPTA would have it. It was about promoting talent and spreading best practice. That is unlikely to happen without substantial incentives. But the union has prevailed. Mediocrity rules again.

No, protecting education from unworkable policy rules again. Yon anonymous Herald editorialist needs to get off their union-bashing bandwagon and spend some time in a classroom.

Want to know who is really attacking education? One of the comments below that editorial gives us some clues:

National has persistently weakened and undermined public education ever since taking office.

National burdened public schools with nonsense like *National Standards*, which crush curiosity, critical thinking, and the capacity to question authority, while delivering nothing more than training in literacy and numeracy.

National decreased funding to public schools while increasing taxpayer subsidies to the private schools their own children attend.

National cut funding for Adult Community Education.

National abolished student allowances for postgraduate students.

National undermined postgraduate study by limiting eligibility for student loans.

National stopped anyone aged over 55 from receiving student loan living costs.

National weakened university councils to silence criticism and dissent.

National are privatising, corporatising, and commercialising our education system.

National have so much contempt for education that they even appointed a creationist, John Banks, Associate Minister of Education.

National are undermining the public education system while funneling public funds to their corporate cronies, and care nothing about improving educational outcomes for children.

Parts of that are a bit strong for me, but overall it’s a pretty fair summary.

72 comments on “Anti-union rant in The Herald ”

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  1. Macro 1
    8 June 2015 at 1:00 pm

    Parts of that are a bit strong for me, but overall it’s a pretty fair summary.

    The sad fact is r0b – it’s true.
    National are doing everything in their power to reduce education in this country to a conveyor belt of training for industry – its a wonder any young person can think at all!
    http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/paul+simon/kodachrome_20105962.html

    • One Anonymous Bloke 1.1
      8 June 2015 at 1:13 pm

      Training people for industry? Not even that, I’m afraid. No-one wants to employ people who can’t think.

      They are training them to do well (or not) in tests, and the motive is profit – all those tests must be authored, and “improved” with endless “research”, and printed, and marked by “professional markers”.

      • Macro 1.1.1
        8 June 2015 at 7:09 pm

        No you don’t want people who can think for themselves – you just want people who can follow orders, add up numbers, and write a sentence. Anything else – they might want to run the show themselves and we can’t have that can we!

  2. Gosman 2
    8 June 2015 at 1:25 pm

    “…nonsense like *National Standards*, which crush curiosity, critical thinking, and the capacity to question authority”

    What absolute emotional tosh.

    All three of my kids are at school with National standards. I fail to see how their curiousity, critical thinking and capacity to question authority has been impacted let alone ‘crushed’.

    Care to show how these are being crushed or do you simply want to take us at your word? A good start would be to show a collapse in performances in areas not covered by National standards.

    • mpledger 2.1
      8 June 2015 at 2:15 pm

      There are subtle ways that schools are changing – the schools I know about do their first block of the day on literacy and the second block on numeracy. One school moved their morning bell times so they could do more numeracy, another school moved their technology program from morning to afternoon to, I suspect, give more time for literacy.

      And the literacy and numeracy tends to be more about leaning facts and learning how to do things. They are not about being creative or being enquiring e.g. like in art or science.

      • Gosman 2.1.1
        8 June 2015 at 2:47 pm

        This is quite possibly correct and it is also quite possibly be having a detrimental effect on other elements of learning. However it is still not evidence for the view that curiosity, critical thinking, and the capacity to question authority are being crushed.

        • Draco T Bastard 2.1.1.1
          8 June 2015 at 2:52 pm

          Yeah, actually, it is. When you remove teaching of curiosity and critical thinking from schools to replace it with rote learning then those things aren’t learned by the students.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 2.2
      8 June 2015 at 2:17 pm

      I expect it’s a prediction based on the failure – complete, abject, miserable failure – of similar centre-right dogma everywhere else in the known universe it’s been tried.

      You failed the test.

      • Naturesong 2.2.1
        8 June 2015 at 5:30 pm

        Undermining and openly attacking teachers is not centre anything.

        There are stark examples in history where anti-intellectuals in power have consistently attacked and demonised teachers.
        Very few of those societies had happy endings

        • One Anonymous Bloke 2.2.1.1
          8 June 2015 at 5:36 pm

          Sure – it’s just they’re calling themselves the centre-right, and apparently it’s “centre right” to undermine collective bargaining and weaken health and safety laws and commit troops to Iraq and pass legislation that undermines the rule of law.

          I’d be ashamed to be a member.

      • Lloyd 2.2.2
        8 June 2015 at 10:14 pm

        What’s “centre” about this neoliberal crap?

        The Labour Party is central.

        The MSM, if it was any good, should be screaming blue murder that the right-wing ideologues are trying to bend the minds of our poor innocent children using ideas that are based on fantasy. Similar fantasies that drove the third Reich.

        • One Anonymous Bloke 2.2.2.1
          9 June 2015 at 9:58 am

          The way I see it, they call themselves the centre right, and they want to weaken worker protections even further, flog everything off to their mates, and refuse to repair their rental accommodation despite infant mortality.

          Why argue with them: that’s what the centre right is, a grasping pack of bought theives and sociopaths.

          Who’d want to be associated with that?

    • dukeofurl 2.3
      8 June 2015 at 2:42 pm

      Gosman, so you are happy that this sort of tosh is being floated around under the banner of national standards ( in reading and writing)

      “In order to make an overall teacher judgment as to whether their students are meeting the standard for their year, teachers will use several sources of information. When making overall teacher judgments, it is not enough for teachers to consider how well a student is reading and writing. Teachers need to specifically consider how well each student is using reading and writing as interactive tools to enable them to learn in all curriculum areas.

      Or we can look at the maths ‘standard’
      This is for end of year 8 – end of primary school

      “Andre has ordered 201 tennis balls. They are sold in cans of 3 balls.

      How many cans should he receive?

      Passed the year 8 standard if you get that brain teaser right, that is again subject to ‘overall teacher judgement’ from above.

      Good to know Gosman your kids education is being dumbed down, and you are delirious happy,

      • Gosman 2.3.1
        8 June 2015 at 3:30 pm

        That is not what the author was stating though. Whether Natiional standards lead to worse outcomes in the areas they are focused on is different to stating they crush curiosity, critical thinking, and the capacity to question authority in all aspects of education.

        • dukeofurl 2.3.1.1
          8 June 2015 at 3:45 pm

          That may have been high brow views for primary students, but in general you dont have any criticism for ‘National standards’ that arent national or standards.

          • Gosman 2.3.1.1.1
            8 June 2015 at 4:16 pm

            Do you think what is being touted as National standards crush curiosity, critical thinking, and the capacity to question authority in school children? If so, why?

            • repateet 2.3.1.1.1.1
              8 June 2015 at 7:59 pm

              What it is about National Standards which crushes curiosity, critical thinking and the capacity to question authority, is the same for children as it is for teachers.

              That is the fact the school, the whole system, the organisation, is geared to National Standards. Schools will be judged, teachers will be judged on National Standard results. Alternative approaches, creative approaches, individual approaches will be gone as the mediocre, the safe middle of the road is sought. The narrowing and dumbing down of the system has the official stamp of approval and the support of those too thick to see what Tolley and Parata have done to future generations.

              Teachers won’t have to worry about the bright kids who can easily reach the standards, spending quality time with extending them is not going to get the ones just below the line “up to standard”.

              If you are really interested and can be bothered searching through this link and have the intelligence to understand some of the subtleties of the laments, you may gain some understanding that the field is quite complex.
              https://networkonnet.wordpress.com

              The subtleties and complexities of kids’ learning have been ignored by the Neanderthal Sisters Tolley and Parata and are certainly beyond the cretinous Herald editorial writer.

    • Draco T Bastard 2.4
      8 June 2015 at 2:49 pm

      What absolute emotional tosh.

      http://www.salon.com/2013/04/18/testing_is_killing_learning/
      http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/kills-creativity-standardized-testing-children-69137
      http://dianeravitch.net/2013/12/30/how-the-standardized-testing-monster-destroys-creativity-and-the-joy-of-learning/

      All three of my kids are at school with National standards. I fail to see how their curiousity, critical thinking and capacity to question authority has been impacted let alone ‘crushed’.

      That’s probably because you’re too stupid to realise how dysfunctional excessive testing is.

      Yeah, you’re the one that’s talking “absolute emotional tosh” as per usual.

    • Simon Johnston 2.5
      8 June 2015 at 4:03 pm

      I’m sure your anecdotal experience trumps the overall reality. Gotta love how you attack the sentence as “emotional”, then pretend that your kids are OK to be used as an empirical data set. Critical thinking is not a value you subscribe to I take it.

    • The Murphey 2.6
      9 June 2015 at 10:25 am

      I don’t believe you have ever mentioned the kids before….Let’s see

      1. You claim to be a business owner
      2. You have claimed to be from or live in Hamilton
      3. Now you claim to have kids

      Yet all the while the style of writing under the Gosman handle exhibits consistent and obvious change such as it has again today

    • Crashcart 2.7
      9 June 2015 at 10:58 am

      Hey Gos. Recommend you have a watch of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6lyURyVz7k. I know he is a comedian but he has just won a peabody and is considered the top investigative journalist in the USA at the moment.

      I realise it is in a US context however it does give some insight into the failings of standardized testing.

  3. John 3
    8 June 2015 at 1:47 pm

    Getting staff from high performing schools to help at low performing schools is a primary reason given as to why Shanghai has risen to the top of world PISA rankings.

    The tragedy is that unions are more interested in keeping poorly performing staff anonymous, than they are in improving their performance.

    And the cherry picking of funding changes to education, shows the desperation to mislead, when overall education funding has increased massively above inflation $9.5B to $13B – that’s $2.5B a year ahead of what it would be with just an inflation adjustment.

    As for the hysterical doomsday nonsense about National Standards – that’s coming from somewhere in lala land.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 3.1
      8 June 2015 at 2:14 pm

      “Keeping poorly performing staff anonymous”.

      Actually, that’s called the Privacy Act.

      As for improvements, you don’t in fact know anything about education in New Zealand, eh.

    • r0b 3.2
      8 June 2015 at 2:20 pm

      overall education funding has increased massively above inflation $9.5B to $13B

      Not according to independent economic analysis:
      https://www.greens.org.nz/news/press-releases/national-cut-38-billion-health-education-and-environment-spending

      National to cut $3.8 billion from health, education and environment spending
      Russel Norman MP on Tuesday, August 19, 2014 – 09:30

      Findings in an independent analysis of the Government’s books, commissioned by the Green Party, reveal National is planning multi-billion dollar cuts to health, education, and environment spending over the next three years.

      The analysis, prepared by Ganesh Nana of independent economic consultancy BERL, shows that National is stripping funding, in real terms, to the health, education and environment sectors to the tune of at least $3.837 billion over the next three years.

      • dukeofurl 3.2.1
        8 June 2015 at 2:28 pm

        Not surprising that nationals budgets so called numbers are a crock of shit.

        Bill says this years deficit is $684 million ( very optimistic), in reality he is planning to borrow over $6 billion (that’s 10x the headline budget figure) to pay for it all.

        Next year its even more borrowed, when he says he has a ‘surplus coming’

      • John 3.2.2
        8 June 2015 at 3:53 pm

        You can look at facts – what was ACTUALLY SPENT in 2009 ($9.5B) and what is being spent this year ($13B) – a 37% increase when inflation over the same period was 11%

        Health has ACTUALLY gone from $11b in 2008 to $15B this year – again, a rise about 2 times faster than inflation.

        Or you can look at what’s laughably called “independent research”. BERL has made itself a laughing stock in the industry – not least when the Greens paid for “independent research” that added up all the possibly negative financial aspects of power generator sales, but to be completely misleading , it specifically excluded BERL looking at any positive financial aspects.

        Early childhood funding has ACTUALLY gone from $860m in 2008 to $1628m in 2015 – nearly 100% increase – yet and the Greens are desperately trying to lie to and mislead the public about cuts.

        Using “independent” research paid for by the Green Party, instead of facts from Core Crown expenditure, is like paying a crystal ball gazer to tell you what your salary is, instead of looking at your pay slip.

        • lprent 3.2.2.1
          8 June 2015 at 4:22 pm

          Health has ACTUALLY gone from $11b in 2008 to $15B this year – again, a rise about 2 times faster than inflation.

          I realize that you may have a blindspot when it comes to thinking about things that you haven’t been given to say. (ie I think that you are a mindless parrot).

          However, shouldn’t you consider comparing the requirement of health against the increase in need? In this case the age and health demographics. Measuring spending against the degradation of a currency seems completely pointless. What you should be measuring is the shortfall of inflation removed spending against the demand for the services. Bearing in mind how fast our population is aging, National are really underfunding health services by about 2-3% per year.

          • Gosman 3.2.2.1.1
            9 June 2015 at 11:17 am

            Doesn’t that just go to show we need to look to get better value out of our health spend. Otherwise the share of expenditure of Health will get more and more. Also I’m not sure why Education demand should be rising hugely given the changing demographic is against the shcool age population. Can you explain why we should be looking to be spending even more in this area?

            • lprent 3.2.2.1.1.1
              9 June 2015 at 1:31 pm

              Ah so you are a supporter of not signing the TPPA? Because that will cause the single biggest increase in health costs that we have ever seen when they root the cost savings in Pharmac. Bearing in mind I can’t see any benefits for NZ’s income from the TPP, that will cause a real budget problem.

              Successive governments since the 1980s have been trying to squeeze the health system for more efficiencies. Most of those efficiencies were gained under Labour governments because as usual the National led governments tend to ineffectually look at punitive changes that usually cause more problems and cost more than they solve.

              But at some point long past, the cuts in effective budget to the health systems started cutting into muscle rather than causing efficiencies. Now that the demographics have caught up with them by going exponential, I’m rather expecting that the Nats lack of attention to primary care will as well.

              You could always look at the obvious explanations for the schools.

              Because there was a bulge in births from 2000-2004, and those kids swell each part of the system as they pass through.
              And because kids and young adults are spending more time at school.

              Both cause the facilities to be expanded to meet peak requirements. That same thing happens on this site. I have to scale it for peak capacity of 150k page views a day rather than the usual 15-20k

        • Tracey 3.2.2.2
          8 June 2015 at 4:24 pm

          If you object to politicians deliberately lying and misleading the public I assume you don’t support the current government?

    • dukeofurl 3.3
      8 June 2015 at 2:23 pm

      That Shanghai thing with PISA is a crock. Why dont we have a special entry for ONE city that can compete against whole countries as well.
      A lot of Children in Shanghai are excluded from the academic high school system because of Hukuo, which restricts people from the countryside access to city social systems such as schooling.
      You can be born in a large city as a child but your familys ‘ancestral’ hukou is still a rural province. First generation migrants often leave their kids behind rural areas.

    • adam 3.4
      8 June 2015 at 2:23 pm

      Any chance you can site some sources for your assertions there John? Especially the one about the unions I wonder if you ever heard of the education review office? http://ero.govt.nz/

      Yes, John some evidence to back up your baseless assertions, would be fine and dandy.

    • mpledger 3.5
      8 June 2015 at 2:39 pm

      Shanghai has risen to the top of the rankings because they don’t test every child only every student. Migrant children to Shanghai don’t get an education there as they are supposed to attend school in the village their parents come from. There are about 500,000 such children in Shanghai.

      http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-04-04/chinese-education-the-truth-behind-the-boasts

      Also China is notorious for cheating –

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      China catches 2,440 cheating students in high-tech scam

      Nor do parents always frown upon such scams. In 2012, when authorities tried to stop cheats in the city of Zhongxiang in Hubei, a riot broke out involving parents angry that their children were being singled out when everyone was cheating.
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/28/world/asia/china-exam-cheats/

      • Ch_ch chiquita 3.5.1
        8 June 2015 at 4:02 pm

        To do well in the PISA testing all you have to do is teach to pass the test and allow only the high achievers to take the test.
        The outcome? A society of non-thinkers with limited knowledge.

    • Frank Macskasy 3.6
      8 June 2015 at 7:40 pm

      Getting staff from high performing schools to help at low performing schools is a primary reason given as to why Shanghai has risen to the top of world PISA rankings.

      Citation please, John?

      Because that sounds mightily like BS to me.

      And links to your others claims would be nice as well, as I suspect you’re not giving us the complete picture. The term “cherry picking” is appropriate.

  4. stever 4
    8 June 2015 at 2:26 pm

    Sounds like Parata is anonymously writing Herald editorials…judging by the whining and selective facts usage and plain lies…very National minister !!!

  5. happynz 5
    8 June 2015 at 2:29 pm

    You would have some suspicion of the ratings if you spent some time in China, or indeed other Asian nations. Cheating and fudging of data so as to meet the “standards” is par for the course. The temptation to do so is the monetary reward handed out by governmental cronies with no educational expertise whatsoever. Give these cronies easily digestible data (never mind if the data is rubbish) and then there’s backslapping all around as bonuses are dispersed.

    • Draco T Bastard 5.1
      8 June 2015 at 3:14 pm

      Cheating and fudging of data so as to meet the “standards” is par for the course.

      Sounds like what National would do. See as evidence:

      1. SkyCity convention centre
      2. Sheep to Saudi businessman
      3. Anything Bill English says that has numbers in it
      4. Bill English’s home address in Wellington Dipton
      5. etc etc

    • Colonial Rawshark 5.2
      8 June 2015 at 3:28 pm

      China is forecasting 7.0% growth this coming year. And it will be achieved, to the exact decimal point. Why wouldn’t you believe the numbers coming out of there?

      • dukeofurl 5.2.1
        8 June 2015 at 3:47 pm

        Easy, because the different provinces will make sure they are ‘all above average’

        Party functionaries know the ‘plan must be exceeded’

  6. mpledger 6
    8 June 2015 at 3:02 pm

    The schools in my area were already meeting and doing stuff together well before National’s policy came up anyway – out of school time.

    Parents really don’t like it when their children’s teacher is away from the classroom (or the head teacher isn’t in the school) for any length of time because student learning and behaviour goes downhill when things become unsettled. It really has to be some benefit to the school to have a teacher/principal go somewhere else for parents to buy into it but all it appears to be helping is outcomes in the receiving school (maybe) and a worse outcome for the sending school. I am not surprised there is no buy-in from sending schools.

    • Draco T Bastard 6.1
      8 June 2015 at 3:15 pm

      Oh, come on, it helps a few teachers pay packet as well.

      • mpledger 6.1.1
        8 June 2015 at 4:08 pm

        And the other teachers get the same money but pick up the slack when the teacher is off somewhere else.

        • Draco T Bastard 6.1.1.1
          8 June 2015 at 4:30 pm

          Well, you know, we all must make sacrifices…

          …for the benefit of the few that National picks.

  7. Tracey 7
    8 June 2015 at 3:56 pm

    Meanwhile a school has toxic mould that can’t be dealt with cos these things take time. I guess they haven’t heard of bleach and opening a few windows?

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11461440

    “Mr Wright said the issues had been going on for at least 10 years.

    The ministry’s head of infrastructure Kim Shannon said safety was always its first priority, and it acted immediately when schools told it there was a safety risk.

    “We understand Paul Wright’s frustration and that people want us to move quicker but any building project, whether a $400,000 new home or multimillion-dollar school building, takes time to plan and build and we have to make sure everything is done right the first time,” Mrs Shannon said.”

    Cos, it’s all about the children, right MOE spokesperson and Parata?

    Just deliver them some fucking BLEACH!!!!

    “Property reports about Clayton Park buildings, the first from 2011, note their faulty design, made worse by poorly implemented repairs in 2009.

    It says the school has “significant weathertightness issues”. Asbestos was also rife.

    Unlike the school’s admin block and gym – which were demolished in 2013 then replaced at a cost of $1.4 million – the 1979 buildings are too old to be considered under “leaky building” funding schemes.

    The school therefore has to wait for a ministry grant to rebuild. Its community does not have the ability to raise enough funds for new premises.

    In the meantime, it is able to partially maintain classrooms with support from the ministry – patching the roof or “drying out” areas when lab tests indicated high levels of mould or spores.”

  8. Gosman 8
    8 June 2015 at 4:00 pm

    What would be interesting is if Labour decides to make removal of National Standards a key policy for the next election. Given that is seems to be very popular amongst parents I suspect this is one area of change introduced by National which will be staying.

    • Sable 8.1
      8 June 2015 at 4:03 pm

      I’m a parent and I see very little in our dysfunctional education system to be happy about. Fees, low expectations (especially with regards to mathematics) and a propaganda based standards system that in no way reflects reality.

      • mpledger 8.1.1
        8 June 2015 at 4:29 pm

        Don’t buy into the NZI report about kids not doing rote learning etc. Kids do heaps of rote learning – it’s just called “basic facts” nowadays. In another forum there were parents driven mental by schools insistence on “basic facts” and time based drills. Some of the schools do it outside of class time using systems such as mathletics.

        Compared to my day, kids spend more time doing what seems like lower level stuff than it ramps up quickly at college because the kids have a good base.

    • dv 8.2
      8 June 2015 at 4:04 pm

      ” Given that is seems to be very popular amongst parents
      got any evidence about that?

    • lprent 8.3
      8 June 2015 at 4:14 pm

      Given that is seems to be very popular amongst parents…

      That isn’t a given. I haven’t seen anything that indicates that is the case. What I have seen is some comments by National’s numerical illiterates claiming that indifference is support. Which it isn’t.

      Link please.

      • Gosman 8.3.1
        8 June 2015 at 4:31 pm

        Notice I stated ‘Seems to be very popular’. This is my opinion based on the fact that National campaigned on it and that many parents I have spoke to about it seem to like it. However I’m quite willing to be shown to be wrong. The question remains whether Labour will stick to the current position about ditching them though. I suspect the opposition to them with be dropped once policy for the next election is being finalised.

        • McFlock 8.3.1.1
          8 June 2015 at 4:35 pm

          So national campaigned on it, your selective anecdata supports it, therefore you suspect that national will not wish to change it. Very profound.

          Frankly, you’d be better off ditching the anecdata and simply going with ‘National campaigned on it, therefore they will not backtrack on it’.

          • mpledger 8.3.1.1.1
            8 June 2015 at 4:50 pm

            I’ve heard parents say they hate reports based on national standards because it’s taken the place of the personal stories about kids – how they are getting on in class, what are their special attributes (kindness, comedy), how they are socialising etc. The kind of stuff that for kids who are “at standard” or “below standard” lifts the hearts of their parents.

            Some schools still do that but some schools just do National Standards.

            • Tracey 8.3.1.1.1.1
              9 June 2015 at 6:35 am

              The enormous paperwork-load means that many teachers are using a copy and paste method of reporting. People forget that teachers teach, have school yard duties and meetings from 8am to 430pm everyday. That means no time for paperwork. Hence the “holidays” they get. More and more experienced teachers I know are getting out. They are being replaced by inexperienced teachers. That pulls on the resource of another teacher to mentor them and is, of course, cheaper than getting an experienced teacher.

              • Draco T Bastard …
                9 June 2015 at 12:23 pm

                People forget that teachers teach, have school yard duties and meetings from 8am to 430pm everyday.

                My youngest sister teaches at a childcare centre and she’s been doing close to 60 hours per week as a part-time job. And, yes, from what I understand from what she’s said that was fully expected of her.

                More and more experienced teachers I know are getting out. They are being replaced by inexperienced teachers.

                Another sister of mine just got out of teaching. From what she said it was closer to constructively dismissed because she was considered to old despite the fact that she was teaching well and her students liked her. But, yeah, she was probably well paid and knew her rights whereas a younger teacher won’t – on both counts.

        • Tracey 8.3.1.2
          9 June 2015 at 6:32 am

          I know you are an evidence-based anti wrong-headed thinking type of person. Do you know what evidence the Government has based its new policy for Education with the clusters and so forth? I can’t find it anywhere.

    • Tracey 8.4
      8 June 2015 at 4:22 pm

      Do you consider that by virtue of giving birth a person becomes an expert in teaching?

      If yes, do you wonder why victims don’t determine how the Police run? Or sick people how Hospitals are run?

      • Gosman 8.4.1
        8 June 2015 at 4:36 pm

        In some places people do have more direct say over how the Police are run.

        • Grant 8.4.1.1
          8 June 2015 at 4:45 pm

          Everyone’s an expert at teaching and highly critical of the profession until you suggest they stand in front of thirty kids for a day and try to get them to sit still, let alone learn something. At this point there is usually a stampede for the door in the general rush to avoid taking up the invitation.

          • Tracey 8.4.1.1.1
            9 June 2015 at 6:29 am

            Some people spend less time engaged with their children than their teachers. Actually many people.

        • Frank Macskasy 8.4.1.2
          8 June 2015 at 7:36 pm

          “In some places people do have more direct say over how the Police are run.”

          Indeed. Especially in banana republics. They have the best police money can buy.

          So, Gosman, you were saying…?

        • Tracey 8.4.1.3
          9 June 2015 at 6:28 am

          Of course you had no obligation to answer my questions. And I see you exercised that right.

        • G-Rex 8.4.1.4
          9 June 2015 at 10:52 am

          Gosman, is user-pays police Act policy?

  9. Sable 9
    8 June 2015 at 4:01 pm

    Why does anyone expect anything from the Herald? In my opinion its just another right wing broadsheet or is that bullsheet? Its so hard to tell the difference…..

    • Draco T Bastard 10.1
      8 June 2015 at 5:26 pm

      And Teacher scheme numbers slashed – papers

      The Educational Institute has opposed the policy and is negotiating an alternative with the Education Ministry.

      Secretary Paul Goulter said the papers contained no proof the teacher and principal roles created by Investing in Educational Success would work.

      “Teachers I know all round the country have said ‘where’s the evidence for this model’.

      “We’ve gone back through this documentation and it just seems to be an article of faith that those roles were going to do the trick and we continue to ask, where is the evidence.”

      Which is how National do everything. They simply come up with an idea and believe that it will work – evidence be damned. Thing is, even once the evidence is in that their ideas don’t work they keep on doing them.

      • Tracey 10.1.1
        9 June 2015 at 6:30 am

        Gosman is an evidence-based guy. I will ask him if he has seen the government’s evidence for this.

  11. Clemgeopin 11
    8 June 2015 at 5:50 pm

    The simple fact is National is a government that is primarily working for the wealthy with constant attacks on the workers, on the less privileged, on the poor, on the teachers, on the public schools and on the unions.

    At the same time, the children of the rich pricks attending rich private schools are pampered with huge resources, low numbers in classes, huge corporate donations and at the same time being given increasing tax payer public funding for the private benefit of the wealthy beneficiaries. Similarly, the privately profiting charter schools are pampered in the same manner, while the public schools are treated with contempt and used by National as their thrashing blocks.

    Look at the huge number of misdeeds, shocking behavior, poor conduct, blatant lies, dodgy deals, secret bribes, corrupt practices and misuse of funds indulged in by this government and their ministers during the last seven years to understand what their own real National Standards are.

  12. ScottGN 12
    8 June 2015 at 5:57 pm

    And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the Herald editorial comes the same day that Radio NZ finally gets a response from the Ministry of Education to its OIA around this policy A YEAR AND A HALF after they made the application.

    • mpledger 12.1
      8 June 2015 at 11:00 pm

      And the day after Whale Oil got himself into deep shit. They must have saved it up to release now, along with the editorial.

    • Tracey 12.2
      9 June 2015 at 6:31 am

      Yup “nothing to fear, nothing to hide” is another policy this government has for others but not itself.