There are just under 760,000 students in the NZ compulsory education system. Under Heather Roy’s plan, twenty five per cent are going to be allowed to choose between different classes provided by different schools or providers.
Let’s look at what that actually means.
One hundred and ninety thousand students on any given day will be boarding cars, buses, trains, taxis and bicycles to travel from one school/ provider to another. For a student in Auckland, it may mean a twenty minute car ride to a school and a twenty minute car ride back. For a student in Kaitaia it may mean an hour in a car over to, say Kerikeri, and then an hour back.
Is this what New Zealand wants for its children? Almost two hundred thousand children spending hours each day sitting in a vehicle instead of a classroom? Kids will get dumber rather than brighter.
Who is going to plan and fund the three hundred and eighty thousand trips to and from another ‘provider’ each day? What happens if a student has to attend TWO other schools in a day?
Has this report had any cost analysis?
Does this mean every school has to teach the same subjects at the same time? There’s no point in a child heading off to a ‘better’ maths lesson at another school/ provider in the morning, only to come back to their ‘regular’ school / provider to find that maths is being taught in the afternoon. Will school timetables have to be standardised?
The more I look at this report, the sillier it becomes. There are good points such as personalised learning and cultural competence, but there is some rubbish as well.
I just watched an episode of a programme called “The Whistleblowers”. It was freakishly spooky. The subject matter?
A British “Academy” school with a 250,000 stg advertising budget and no budget for special needs of any kind. A young man was failing and developed depression, so he was expelled, few weeks later killed himself… The man whose brainchild the “academies” are, is seen talking to the Minister and asking if his K or P is assured…
It is discovered that the school is profiling kids and expelling those which will lower its achievement level…
A must watch for anyone who wants a glimpse into the future.
So who are the poor parents who are going to ferry them? Or should they just chance it by hitchhiking?
It happens already Kelvin. On my way to work I see kids getting on buses at the end of my street (in suburban Auckland) for the ride to school. Some are heading to schools further away but plenty are just heading to the ‘local’ in zone secondary, at 7.30 in the morning. They get back again in the afternoon around 4.30pm.
Perhaps this will prompt them to deal with Auckland’s traffic other than by building more roads (laughing hysterically)
“Step change”, can’t help but get images of North Korean soldiers on parade…