Fast tracking wide-ranging changes to the Education and Training Act without consultation with the community or teaching profession will politicise education, remove the voice of teachers and communities and have negative consequences for tamariki, whānau, educators and schools, says NZEI Te Riu Roa.
“This is irresponsible legislation in the making; the Minister has put a bulldozer through the education system,” says Ripeka Lessels, a principal and president of NZEI Te Riu Roa.
The Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill was introduced to the House on Monday and passed its first reading on Tuesday evening. The submission period for the Bill is tight, closing on 14 January.
The changes to the Bill shift the balance of power away from teachers, communities, schools and school boards to the Minister.
Section 90 of the Bill states that the Minister will be able to override even the Secretary of Education to re-write the curriculum, dictating what is taught, how it is taught and even how it is learnt.
Mrs Lessels says that the proposed changes to the Act are a massive overreach of power on the part of the Minister of Education.
“Parents should be worried. Teachers are professionals, trained and expert in teaching individual students in front of them. This law change dumps the idea of personalised teaching and instead legislates the Minister’s philosophy that 'all brains learn the same'.
“This appears to put into legislation the Minister’s current approach of zero consultation with teachers, curriculum experts and parents – it creates direct political control of teaching and learning,” says Mrs Lessels.
She says that the change risks intensified politicisation of education and swings from one direction to another every electoral cycle which is exactly what educators and whānau have been saying they don’t want.
“What we want to see is a cross-party long-term agreement with educators and communities on the direction of our system, which is what countries with highly successful education systems do.”
The independent voice of the Teaching Council is gone, and the ability of teachers to elect people to their own professional independent body has been gutted. Core responsibilities for quality teaching currently held by the Teaching Council are being handed to the Secretary of Education, who reports to the Minister. This means that teachers’ professional code and standards for training and regular certification are subject to the whim of the government of the day.
“This change has been rushed so fast that the Ministry warns there is no Budget bid to pay for it. Instead, the Ministry is floating an increase in fees and levies charged to teachers.”
The Bill also removes the obligation to raise the status of the teaching profession and seems designed to send a message to teachers that their mahi is not seen or valued.
The Bill recognises that there is little appetite for charter schools. It introduces the option for state schools that convert to charter schools to revert back to state schools in some circumstances. But it also makes it easier for charter schools to run multi-school contracts and tightens central control over granting students exemptions for attendance – without addressing the reasons for chronic underattendance – housing and food security.
“What we are seeing is what we’ve seen in the curriculum changes – a Government hell-bent on making a one-size-fits-all education system and controlling it in its entirety, without thought for the diversity and needs of our tamariki and our communities. We cannot see in any of the proposed changes a world where tamariki, kaiako or their whānau will be better off.”
ENDS