A breathtaking litany of incompetence
Posted by Grant Robertson on October 22nd, 2009
Citizens of New Zealand, this is your Minister of Education. No support for primary schools to deliver science, art or PE next year. What would we want with primary school pupils who can understand science anyway? Listen to the interview in the link. It is enough to make you weep.
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Looks like the purchase advisor has given the advice she has wanted to hear
What are these ’support services’?!
“No EXTRA support”, not “no support”.
A proud day for New Zealand.
I’m actually almost as concerned that she spent an entire minute arguing about how the information came to light. Hardly ‘efficient’ or ‘value for money’ there Tolley.
I ment a prd dy 4 Nuzelnd.
I gess weel hav a dum, phat, skool kids who cant droar man!
Graham: I am sorry but using the word extra gives the impression that this is not a critical part of the way children in primary schools are taught. Primary teachers do not all have subject degrees, but the expectations on them to teach in a range of subjects are high. Specialist advisors enable schools to keep teaching and learning in these important areas to the standards that parents expect, and, critically, keep the programmes up to date.
This is not the 1950s. In a complex interdependent world I think we all want kids to emerge capable of grabbing onto all the new ideas that are out there. This is short termist, narrow minded thinking.
My comments on this 23 Sept :- http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2009/09/23/what-value-science/
I’m sorry, are you saying that teachers have been getting (extra) support to deliver science, art and PE over the last year (and in years before that) and that this has been cut?
I hadn’t understood from the article that that was what has happened. If they’re cutting extra support that is currently being provided that is a big deal.
Graham: Yes. the money is to be ‘re-directed’ to implementing the national standards.
sorry for spelling, Graeme. I hate it when people do that to me! (robinson/robertson)
[...] to Grant’s ‘listen and weep’ post on Anne Tolley’s performance on Morning Report, Gordon Campbell has written how the [...]
Interesting that the push back is about the meaning of the word ‘extra’
gwwnz – only because I misunderstood what it meant. When the article said “no extra funding” I thought it meant “we’re not going to provide the additional funding you were asking for” – which may be worthy of attack, but probably not outrage in straightened economic times.
There will be still be argument for and against, but I doubt you’ll be getting push-back on “extra” from anyone who understands the situation.
A basic tenet of primary school pedagogy describes rich and effective teaching of language skills, reading and critical thinking within integrated approach where the child explores its world through art, movement, science and language. Dispensing with advisors in art, music and physical education will be seen by history as Tolley’s folly. And sadly he biggest losers will be Maori children. Turia and Sharples really need long spoons.
Graeme, its seems that not every school would get support on say science for every teacher every year.Its sounds like a ‘as needed’ basis.
But there is a centralised service which is staffed to provide these services, which will have the rug pulled from under them.
Small businesses use this sort of thing all the time.
IT, accounting , marketing and so on.
Now its all sacrificed to the 3 Rs.
To think of the extra money into private schools that is happening that has been taken from these programs
Frankly, this is yet another travesty toward the ruination of our education system. It is time we had a minister of ed who actually knew something – anything – about her portfolio! It is disgraceful. Listening to her trite answers it is clear she is completely out of depth and lacking competence.
The advisory provides much needed support to schools to ensure they are able to implement the new national curriculum. The advisory started to get cut some months ago – what is appalling is that it has taken Tolley this long to come out and tell people. Teachers are still expected to provide for the full range of the curriculum.
Some historical context is needed here. In the past, every time a government has tinkered with the curriculum and rolled out new initiatives it has been ill supported. These range from the revised math/English/arts/science etc curriculums in the 90s and include initiatives such as NCEA. They are set in concrete, the national guidelines get changed and schools are required to implement them. However, the support structures to ensure they are implemented correctly, in a suitable pace and with appropriate resources and professional development are never put in place adequately and schools get left holding the can. This is where the advisory becomes critical.
In relation to Nat Stds, the sector requested the minister make sure schools were provided with appropriate support and resources – especially as this is rushed. HOWEVER – this support should not be intended to take away from the critical support required to ensure the new curriculum is also implemented with appropriate support. If the government are serious about their ‘nat stds’ baby, then they should have costed it out to ensure that this support was additional – not take away something as important as the advisory. It is simply ill conceived. It highlights that the minister and her top bench colleagues know sod all about education – if they did, they would not be making all these damaging mistakes – mistakes that will take our country many years to recover from. It is all the kids that have to endure these mistakes that will be failed. Another reason why people will leave the country in droves – including our best teachers.
I understand the international recruiters are already on the job. These are our very best specialists – amongst the best in the world.
That is right Trevor – axing the advisory is putting many people out of a job – and they are the sectors skilled professionals who will be snapped up by the rest of the world. People in the public tend to forget that NZ educators are highly regarded around the world. We will lose our best advisors and then when teachers get brassed off we will lose the best of them as well. After all, you can make more money offshore training others than you can here.
Gifted and talented students without the support advisors give to their teachers = disengaged intelligent minds = ripe for criminal stream.
Likewise children with special needs in other areas!
@Linda – that’s okay, they can funnel them down the new motorway!
I hate it when people use the word “litany” incorrectly.
@Spud. Better be a ‘future proof’ motorway as we will be very short of engineers and talented design people when we need to upgrade or change it! Still maybe a chain-gang could maintain it…
Have just seen an advisor in action at a local school running a programme for children with delayed oral language development. She co-ordinates about a dozen volunteer parent helpers she has trained to work with these children. When she goes so will that programme, very sad!
Look,how jolly,
Here’s Anne Tolley:
Tory polly
Stacktwo the rest is marginal personal abuse. Trevor
@Linda LOL
@Trevor – damn I didn’t get to read it before moderation 
@ Stacktwo – I bet that was funny, I love good satirical poetry. 
It is unfortunate that the Minister has forgotten that 2010 will see the arrival of the new curriculum. This emphasises learning in all areas. Many schools have seen this as an opportunity to introduce inquiry learning – and seen integration as perfect way of achieving this. This means aproaching a theme or problem from several curriculum areas… social studies, maths, science and english can all contribute. Island Bay school does this particularly well but without the help of advisors, and the need to ‘teach to the test’ this will end. I am considering telling my childs Principal that I do not want her tested, if she is tested I do not want her result sent to anyone but me. This new regime will create a generation of kids who hate learning and hate school. If Key wants to help the kids who leave school with low literacy give them smaller classes at Primary instead.
Hmm… Well, perhaps it was a bit direct: I really do think that this is an insane policy to be enacting at this time, against so much advice and so much international research and I strayed into suggesting (as others have done) that the person who insisted on taking this blinkered and ideological course might have been, well, not quite compos mentis, and sadly making a fool of herself.
It makes me angry to think that a proportion of children will be reported officially, from a very early age, as being educationally inadequate. The first national standard I met was School Cert – and sometimes the branding of inadequacy that young people, then in their teens, had rammed home for the first time was the point at which school ceased to interest them any more. Will they now start dropping out at 7 or 8?
yes, they will drop out.