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If you wondered why education isn’t working
We have the worst classroom disruption in the developed world. New Zealand students feel less safe than those in America.
Free Press
The Haps
ACT’s legislative roll continues, with Brooke’s Employment Leave Bill replacing the bugbear Holidays Act, and Nicole’s new Arms Act striking the balance between public safety and respect for licenced firearm owners. Both passed last week after years of work. This week the Resource Management bills that Simon Court has poured his heart and soul into for nearly three years will be back before the House.
As David Seymour said in Parliament last week, ACT may not be the biggest, the loudest, or the newest, but; they are unbeatable if your measure is being consistent and effective at making change to unlock New Zealand’s potential, deleting stupid rules so people can build their lives.
ACT is also active outside Wellington. Paul Henry’s nationwide tour is packing out town halls, and this week he’s in Blenheim (tomorrow) and Nelson (Wednesday).
If you wondered why education isn’t working
New Zealand students have been in free fall this century, that is according to international comparisons of reading, maths, and science ability. We’ve gone from being a top five country to a top twenty country, sometimes worse.
Students attend school less than comparable English-speaking countries, even acknowledging recent improvements.
These facts might be because we have the worst classroom disruption in the developed world. New Zealand students feel less safe than those in America, who sadly have to endure routine drills to prepare for school shootings.
By any measure, our education performance is a disaster for our long-term prosperity. The number one indicator of success in a modern knowledge economy is passing knowledge from one generation to another.
Knowledge probably matters more for New Zealand than anywhere. We aren’t a big country close to world markets. There’s no oil bubbling out of cracks in the ground. Being smarter is our best hope of being first world.
It’s impossible to do that if students don’t regularly attend, and teachers spend 50 minutes per day dealing with disruption, as the Education Review Office has found. This is the demise of a first world country happening before our eyes unless we get orderly classrooms back.
At the core of the problem is that teachers’ authority has been undermined by stupid rules. Those who use any kind of force risk a bureaucratic furore, so the default is caution, where bad behaviour prevails. The rules are stupid because they were designed to keep people safe, but they create a power vacuum which is less safe.
Along comes ACT’s policy to empower teachers’ authority in the classroom, prepared in consultation with teachers and principals, and laid out in four simple sections:
Teachers have an explicit legal right to remove disruptive students from the classroom.
Teachers acting in good faith can restrain students, including to maintain order and prevent the destruction of property, without being bogged down in paperwork. (Currently they can only restrain a student if they are imminently going to harm themselves or another student, and even then the repercussions can be a nightmare.)
Any student assaulting a teacher will be automatically stood down.
Parents must attend meetings post any incident and may be fined for not complying.
The net effect is to empower the teacher. Under ACT’s policy, the teacher is in charge. They’re not going to be bogged down in paperwork. The teacher will ultimately win because the school and ultimately the Government will back them in any escalation.
The response from the usual suspects (media, unions and failed principals) has been a perfect example of why New Zealand education is in deep schtook.
The emphasis has been almost entirely on the disruptive kids. What if they have a learning difficulty? What do you mean by reasonable force? (It’s already in the law.) Why can’t you just give us more ‘resources?’ (The education budget is already $20 billion.)
They can’t decide if they’re against the policy because ‘teachers can already do this’ (they can’t) or ‘this will lead to dangerous altercations’ (it won’t). Altogether the response to a policy addressing one of New Zealand’s most serious problems is completely unserious.
We are in this mess because the simple idea that the purpose of the classroom is learning and the teacher should be in charge is not taken seriously. Free Press is proud to be associated with the ACT Party, the party putting the hard issues on the table so we can unlock New Zealand’s potential.