Either you believe in equitable and high quality education for all NZ children, or you don't.

Some parents have asked me to explain here why I believe the current political agenda in education is not only scary, but also dishonest. They have also asked me to explain the question in this post's title.

1. On the surface, current policies seem to be about raising achievement. They are not. They are about privatising schools so that our government can limit their obligations to tax payers, both financially and  educationally. Private businesses are targeted to pick up the slack. Why is that such a bad thing? Because, once a school is about making money, it is no longer about learning or students or community. Expensive (ie high quality) teachers are a liability. Expensive resources like music studios or science labs or open green fields become superfluous. Only wealthier students will be able to afford to attend a school with such facilities. This is inequitable.

2. On the surface, current policies seem to be about the government investing in education. They are not. Your taxes will be used to establish charter or partnership schools so that businesses run by political cronies can make money. That's your tax dollars funding opportunities for private profit at the expense of poorer communities. Meanwhile, more and more of your taxes are channeled to top class private schools for the wealthy. These will be the first tier schools of the future. This is inequitable.

3. On the surface, current policies seem to be about helping poorer children from low decile communities get a better deal. They are not. Once control of schools is passed to private companies, they can and will make their own rules about fees and selection. Those that can afford higher performing partnership schools will attend them. These will be the second tier schools of the future. However, the majority will end up in the third tier schools - poor performing*, for profit schools, stripped of assets and quality resources. This is inequitable.

Currently, such schools already exist in the UK. They are 'selling' school places to those that can afford them. These schools are no longer the heart of the community. Indeed, local children's families can not always afford to attend them.

I understand 'user-pays' economics. However, education and health should be the exceptions that prove the rule.

The right to access high quality primary school education should be fair and equitable for all NZ children. (Access to university is a different matter!)

Hence the statement on our school Facebook page - either you believe in a system of high quality public education for all children, or you dont. Ask yourselves. Ask your MP.


*poor performing schools should not be interpreted as schools with poor National Standards achievement data.

Tests n tablets?

Here is some reporting in plain language about why teachers fear a national test:

Publishing league tables makes national testing high stakes - we want our students to do well in them. Our pay may even be related to student performance in them. So we spend our classroom time teaching how to pass the test. 

Some kids pass the test. What have they actually learned? 

Some kids don't pass the test. What have they actually learned?

What about subjects that are not tested - sport? music? art?

This test obsessed culture leads to students who are apathetic. Their learning is limited to how to pass the tests in reading, writing and maths. I believe this type of education is partly responsible for spawning  the Y-generation - "Why bother?" They were passive recipients of an education devoid of passion, devoid of values, devoid of joy, devoid of wonderment, devoid of any engagement with the process of real learning. Their test scores improved over time, but their 'education' dried up with each new practice test. What positive action did their learning lead to? Just another, probably more difficult, test. Why bother? 

I was both a teacher and a student in this type of system and I am totally gutted that it is happening now in NZ, just as the UK and USA are counting the costs of their education blunders both socially and economically.

I believe current testing systems, as in our own NCEA are already completely obsolete in their current form. The National Government 's failure to recognise this is sending us back to Victorian ideas about education. Moreover, they are inflicting this senselessness on children as young as six in order for them to be better able to pass equally senseless tests at age sixteen!

I cant recall the Greek philosopher, but I remember the quote about teaching a man, not what to think, but how to think. Pencil and paper testing only enables the tested to show what they have remembered - utterly useless in modern times, when you think about it.

I was intrigued by Professor Sugata Mitra, who called for internet-connected devices to be taken into the exam hall. He argues:

Let's look at examinations. At about AD1000 there used to be an entrance examination in an Indian university where the student was expected to orally answer the gateman; that's why it was called an entrance examination. If he couldn't, the student had to go back home. He could use nothing other than his mind and his voice.

There was a great jump after about a thousand years. Somebody said no, we must enable the person we're examining with technology. We can give him a piece of paper and a pencil. So now teachers had to prepare students to use that new technology to answer questions. Recitation became less important. I suggest that we just make one similar change.

Allow a tablet connected to the internet to be brought in to the examination hall. Take away the paper and pencil and say this time you have to answer the GCSE (NCEA) differently. All you have is a tablet. You can email your friends, you can look up on the internet, do whatever you like. And answer the questions.

I believe that if we do that the entire system will change. Teachers are intelligent people; they will start to immediately teach differently. A tablet can tell you what to think, but it will never be able to tell you how to think.....

or how to discriminate....
or how to be genuinely creative....
or how to argue...
or how to think critically....
or how to reflect....

A test obsessed system does not strengthen or develop these things either. 

Put a tablet into an examination hall. It's a small input. The entire system will self-organise. We may then have a chance to help foster the next generation of actively involved, confident, connected, lifelong learners.

Unions United.

This week the various teaching unions have united (at last) to unanimously condemn PaCT - a performance and consistency tool based on National Standards.

Predictably,  Fairfax Media have continued to publish teacher bashing drivel that completely misses the point.

If all airline pilots unanimously objected to a new pre-flight procedure, the public would surely take notice - pilots understand aeroplanes.

If all building inspectors unanimously objected to a policy revision, the public would surely take notice - building inspectors understand buildings.

If all doctors unanimously objected to a new drug, or a new medical procedure, the public would surely take notice - doctors understand health care.

And yet there are clearly people out there, who still believe teachers are acting in their own self interest to oppose National Standards. Do they really believe the government's line that teachers are all lazy, useless, left wing loonies with too many holidays?

You can trust your child's teacher.

Can you trust the Education Minister?

Can you trust Fairfax Media?

Some thoughts on the 2013 budget....

First we were told to fear the enemy. Some people got richer.
Then we were told to fear climate change. Some people got richer.
Then we were told to fear the global financial melt down. And still some people got richer.
Is the education of our children our next great fear? Will some people get richer?

There is no doubt that public education is under an organized assault by corporate reformers who seek to script our curriculum and make us teach to their tests. This will make them richer, but at what cost to our children and our children's futures?

Bill's budget supports this reform unequivocally.

NZ schools had a much broader vision for a different kind of education: one that supports each and every child to dance and sing and think and debate and play and create and dream and make art and show their ideas about how to make the world a better place.

It was called the NZ Curriculum and it has been lost in a haze of National Standards data and a myriad of so-called initiatives.

I just wish the budget had included more money for supporting our children and less money for 'measuring' them.

More National Standards Concerns

When will the government realise that learning does not behave like an economy? There is no business model. There are no straight lines. We are dealing with children, not exchange rates. 

e-asTTle is an assessment tool widely used by lots of schools in NZ for 'leveling' students' achievement in Reading, Writing and Maths.

It is not currently used at Limehills.

e-asTTle has suddenly discovered that last year's assessments were significantly inflated. 

The mean score for e-asTTle was dropped nationally as a result and adjustments were then made to the results from all schools who have submitted results this year.

Some children have been dropped by two grades, which is the difference between being 'at' the 'standard' or 'below' it. (A year's learning - whatever that looks like.)

This was done without consulting schools, many of whom only found out when they found their results had been changed by somebody at e-asTTle.

If that wasn't alarming enough, nothing has been done to those inflated scores from 2012. These scores have been fed into the national standards data about to be published and will 'inform' public opinion on how well one school is performing in relation to another. Accordingly, schools who used e-asTTle will appear to perform well in relation to those who do not. 

National Standards continue to be a farce. This latest e-asTTle saga makes a mockery of the government’s claims about quality data.

The current political agenda includes aligning teacher pay to their performance as indicated by that same flawed data.

Surely, better performing schools would then attract higher performing and better paid teachers and continue to improve. Poorer performing schools make do with lower paid staff and continue to struggle. How would that narrow the achievement gaps in NZ? If you remember, that's what National Standards were supposed to be about  - "narrowing the gap" and helping the "1 in 5".

Not a chance. We now know that National Standards were inextricably linked to a larger plan to destabilize the teaching unions and privatise education. Politics aside, Kiwi kids will simply be much worse off as a result. Only the corporate elite will benefit.

Role of ERO?

I have always genuinely enjoyed ERO reviews. You might think that this is slightly unusual, but I believe this statement says more about ERO and the way they operate, than it does about my sanity.

Previous reviews have always left me a better Principal than I was before, with clarified thinking and fresh ideas that often led to positive outcomes for students. Conversation with highly skilled and experienced officers (educators, not politicians mind you) have always been a privilege.

So why this post? It is certainly not to flatter ERO in the hope of a favourable review!

After re-reading my recent posts, a major question has emerged:

Are ERO an independent education review body? Or, are they a political tool for a government hell bent on privatising schools?

I hope ERO can forgive me for asking the question, but this is how OfSTED seems to have evolved in the UK, with disastrous results.

I can't wait to continue the conversations about learning and look forward to an enjoyable and productive few days.

The Dick Smiths Electronics School at Centre Bush?

I heard something terribly terribly sad today.

My old school in the UK - a 'Beacon School' not so long ago (a national example of excellent practice) has been forced to declare itself an academy (charter school) after the education board deemed it to be failing (their politically motivated 'standards'.)
It now operates under the governance of the Carphone Warehouse ! (All for the benefit of the pupils, of course!.....)
This makes me sick. Wake up NZ. Dont let this happen to us!
Schools are about people, not profit, or political ideology.

The Dick Smiths Electronics School at Centre Bush? It's a very real possibility.....

A taste of home...

This is so depressing.

For "Tory" read "National".
For "England" read "NZ".
For "OfSTED" read "ERO".

The following article was written in the Guardian (UK):

So much for all those treasured Tory principles. Choice, freedom, competition, austerity: as soon as they conflict with the demands of the corporate elite, they drift into the blue yonder like thistledown.

This is a story about England's schools, but it could just as well describe the razing of state provision throughout the world. In the name of freedom, public assets are being forcibly removed from popular control and handed to unelected oligarchs.

All over England, schools are being obliged to become academies: supposedly autonomous bodies which are often "sponsored" (the government's euphemism for controlled) by foundations established by exceedingly rich people. The break-up of the education system in this country, like the dismantling of the NHS, reflects no widespread public demand. It is imposed, through threats, bribes and fake consultations, from on high.

The published rules looked straightforward: schools will be forced to become academies only when they are "below the floor standard ... seriously failing, or unable to improve their results". All others would be given a choice. But in many parts of the country, schools which suffer from none of these problems are being prised out of the control of elected councils and into the hands of central government and private sponsors.

For five years, until 2012, Roke primary school in Croydon, south London, was rated as "outstanding" by the government's inspection service, Ofsted. Then two temporary problems arose. Several of the senior staff retired, leading to a short period of disruption, and a computer failure caused a delay in giving the inspectors the data they wanted. The school was handed the black spot: a Notice to Improve. It worked furiously to meet the necessary standards – and it has now succeeded. But before the inspection service returned to see whether progress had been made, the governors were instructed by the Department for Education to turn it into an academy.

In September last year the Department for Education held a closed meeting with the school's governors, in which they were told (according to the chair of the governors) that if they did not immediately accept its demand, "we will get the local authority to fire you, all of you ... if the local authority don't do it, we will. And we will put in our own interim board of governors, who will do what we say". The governors were instructed not to tell the parents about the meeting and their decision.

They did as they were told, partly because they had a sponsor in mind: the local secondary school, which had been helping Roke to raise its standards. They informed the department that this was their choice. It waited until the last day of term – 12 December – then let them know that it had rejected their proposal. The sponsor would be the Harris Federation. It was founded by Lord Harris, the chairman of the retail chain Carpetright. He is a friend of David Cameron's and one of the Conservative party's biggest donors. Roke will be the Harris Federation's 21st acquisition.

The parents knew nothing of this until 7 January, when 200 of them were informed at a meeting with the governors. They rejected the Harris Federation's sponsorship almost unanimously, in favour of a partnership with the local secondary school.

The local MP appealed to the schools minister Lord Nash, who happens to be another very rich businessman, major Tory donor and sponsor of academies. He replied last month: the decision is irreversible – Harris will run the school. But there will now be a "formal consultation" about it. He did not explain what the parents would be consulted about: the colour of the lampshades? Oh, and the body which will conduct the "consultation" is ... the Harris Federation. There is no mechanism for appeal. The parents feel they have been carpet-bombed.

Similar stories are being told up and down the country. Academy brokers hired by the department roam the land like medieval tax collectors, threatening and cajoling governors and head teachers, trying to force them into liaisons with corporate sponsors. Far from targeting failing schools, they often seem to pick on good schools that run into temporary difficulties. When standards rise again, the sponsors can take credit for it, and the "turnaround" can be claimed as another success. Ofsted iswidely suspected of colluding in this process.

Where threats don't work, the department resorts to bribery. Schools are being offered sweeteners of up to £65,000 of state money to convert. Vast resources are being poured by the education secretary, Michael Gove, into the academies programme, which has exceeded its budget by £1bn over the last two years. We are being pushed towards the policy buried on page 52 of the department's white paper: "it is our ambition that academy status should be the norm for all state schools".

Is this a prelude to privatisation? A leaked memo from the department recommends "reclassifying academies to the private sector". Just as Conservative health secretaries have done to the NHS, Michael Gove has published misleading statistics about our schools, to create theimpression that they are failing by international standards. They are not.

Neither truth nor principle stands in the way of this demolition programme. All the promises of the market fundamentalists – choice, competitive tendering, decentralisation and savings – are abandoned in favour of brutal and extravagant dictat. Thus the government creates a novelty: a capitalist command economy.

Twitter: @georgemonbiot A fully referenced version of this article can be found at monbiot.com

The ghost of Maggie lives on?

I am starting to see a worrying trend.

As a Principal, I worry about educational policy, but the penny has just dropped. The connection has been made. National Standards...Charter schools...Mighty River Power.....Miners' strike...

The government is systematically stripping the assets that are owned by everyone in our community (including schools) and redistributing those assets among the wealthiest members of society (and certainly those who fund their politics.)

Who will buy shares in State Owned Enterprises?
Who will reap the profit from charter schools?

The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

The death of Maggie Thatcher is a timely reminder of my working class upbringing around the coal mines in South Wales in the early 80s....  I can't help but notice the same politics creeping into NZ.

Ill-conceived educational policy is just the tip of the ice berg.