UNLEASH

ED

Tag: politics

  • Winter is coming

    Other things than teacher shortages that can be blamed on the winter season…

    • Charter schools aren’t really working because it’s winter…
    • Winter is largely responsible for Māori student underachievement…
    • Overcrowded homes with multiple families living under one roof is only a factor because of winter…
    • There is no mental health crisis, it’s just winter…
    • Cold and damp living situations only happen because of winter…
    • Underfunding schools happens because of each year’s winter…
    • House prices are only high because it’s winter…
    • Teacher stress and workload is only an issue because of winter…
    • Winter causes families to want to live in cars…
    • There is no child poverty, it’s just winter…
    • Youth suicide. Winter…
    • Terrorism. Winter…
    • North Korea vs. US. Winter…
    • Titanic, Hindenburg, Tangiwai, Wahine. Winter…

     

    In response to: There isn’t really a teacher shortage…

  • Primary schools to measure student progress

    In response to https://beehive.govt.nz/release/primary-schools-measure-student-progress – August 26, 2017.

    Measure. Measure. Measure. Weigh. Weigh. Weigh. Data. Data. Data.

    “The Government has made a decision to shift towards a system that measures student progress, alongside National Standards / Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori, to help ensure every student gets the support they need to achieve…
    Monitoring student progress gives teachers more data on which to tailor learning plans for their students – and we want to roll this out to all primary schools and kura.”

    says Education Minister Nikki Kaye.

    More data. More weighing. More testing. More assessment.

    Guess what. Teacher’s already monitor progress. I can show you the progress each of my students are making (or not making) in each of the three big subjects that now dominate the New Zealand Curriculum. Obviously not enough though.

    “Measuring progression means teachers will be able to see how far children have come in the specific learning areas that make up National Standards.”

    In some regards, it is good that the Minister has acknowledged what teachers have been saying for a while. Some students make incredible progress within a year, but are still below or well below the expected standard set by the Standards.

    “The change also reflects the education sector’s observation that we don’t adequately show a student’s progress over time, particularly for students who may be below the standard, and this will help address that.”

    This is all well and good, but as schools have come to know through the berading from ERO and senior advisers, progress don’t mean jack when it comes to achievement, which is all ‘the Ministry’ and ERO actually care about. 85% At or Above. 85%. 85%. 85%.

    Ultimately however, this will actually just lead to the mandatory use of PaCT.

    To support teachers the Ministry of Education has developed progress tools, such as Learning Progression Frameworks, the Progress and Consistency Tool and Whakatupuranga, that help show how children are doing and how they can progress. These have been developed in a number of areas including reading, writing, maths and digital technologies.

    The Government wants to roll out tools like these to all primary schools and kura as evidence shows they deliver real benefits for teachers and kaiako, by streamlining paperwork and reducing their reporting workload.

    There has been copious amounts written about PaCT and it’s potential. Just have a look at the following

    Education continues down this reform, with National determined on making National Standards legitimate.

     

  • NZEI: Not Zealous Enough. Ick.

    Three years ago the government announced their latest plan for collectives of schools to get together and share in the pot of $359 Million to share teachers, resources, and knowledge. Naturally, and rightly, NZEI took the initiative to their members. The following was the result:

    Primary Teachers and Principals vote to put kids first… 21 August 2014

    “Teachers and principals have voted overwhelmingly against the Government’s controversial “Investing in Educational Success” policy, including proposed highly-paid principal and teacher roles.

    A resounding 93 percent of teachers and principals voted “no confidence” in the government’s plan.

    When asked whether they wanted to try to reshape the policy or start again, 73 percent voted to reject the proposed new roles outright rather than try to change the policy through negotiation.”

     

    Since then, despite 93% of its members saying no thanks, NZEI have gone into negotiations with the Government, and come up with a revised outline for the IES, and a new label called “Communities of Learning”. But essentially they’ve ended up with the same turd, it’s just slightly more polished – as I wrote about here.

    Now, with the arrival of an election in September, the latest campaign from NZEI is to get more people in to vote, assuming that the more people they get in to vote, the more likely they are to get votes in ‘Teachers’ favour. The initiative is not targeting parents, it is in fact, targeting the students to get them to bring their parents along to vote.

    Quite frankly, I’m disgusted by this approach to working for Teachers.

    It is less than amicable, and has a range of issues that all lead to NZEI losing face. Big time.

    For a much more succinct account of these issues, head over to Whale Oil’s take on things. The fact that this has been picked up by Whale Oil, should be reason enough to look at this skeptically.

    As a teacher, I don’t pay NZEI to meddle in politics. I pay them to support me. To listen when we have a vote and do what we ask them to do (since they asked us what we wanted them to do). I pay them to negotiate on my behalf with the government, not go into political propaganda against them and try and influence votes through children. I find that intolerable.

    Some will say that if I don’t like it, then I should cease membership with them.

    While that’s fine in theory, I’m caught in a rock and a hard place. Don’t forget – I am a male primary school teacher. Few and far between – for a reason. It’s an incredibly risky workplace, and while I can safely say nothing is ever going to happen, I prefer to have the backing of NZEI’s lawyers than having to wrangle myself out of any false accusations. So unlike many who can, and have, and will, I can not just simply cease paying my membership, as it is security for me in my position as a male teacher.

    In conclusion; NZEI have lost any mana they might have had. I have no confidence in them, and will not be supporting them in any future plans.

  • Decile Ratings to be Replaced

    “A controversial risk modelling tool to guide Government spending in schools is reportedly close to being signed off as a replacement for the decile system.

    The predictive risk modelling index would replace the decile system, Newshub has reported. The Government had long been in talks with organisations including the New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI), which also wanted the decile system scrapped.”
    – Decision close on controversial predictive risk

    So, now that we have moved forward from the initial outcry over this model, what has changed?

    Not a lot – otherwise you’d think they would have announced those changes to smooth over the transition with the profession.

    Like I expressed in this post, there is a bigger picture at play here. Students will begin to get linked entirely to social, poverty, and criminal factors that they have little to do with. We will begin to judge parents over their pasts, and any record that they have that contributes towards funding. The Government will then have a complete and all encompassing database of every parent and every child in the country. Chances are, that while all good intentions may be behind this, at some point, something will go wrong. Chances are, they already have said database.

    A year ago this all hit the headlines. No surprises that John Hattie was in the thick of it throwing his virtual educational powers in the Government’s favour as per usual.

    So it would seem that regardless of what the sector say, the Government will just keep on rolling on with whatever they want to do.

    I’m quite glad I live in a democracy.

  • Prison Beds or Educated Society

    Two point five billion dollars.

    $2.5 billion dollars.

    $2,500,000,000.00

    That’s a lot of dollar coins.

    Let me tell you what they will spend it on.

    No. Not fixing the poverty problem sweeping the country. No. Not assisting children living in impoverished situations. No. Not sorting out the public health situation with junior doctors striking today. No. Not addressing the lack of funding in mental health with suicide prevention and support.

    So, after earlier this week scrutinising that crime is caused by poverty, rather than address the poverty situation that is staring everyone in the face (and not likely to go away just because you keep staring back), Judith Collins and her cronies announce that $1 billion of that cash injection will be used to create living arrangements for an additional 1800 inmates.

    To put those numbers into perspective; that’s $555,555.55 per bed. Five hundred and fifty five and a half THOUSAND dollars per room with a bed and a pan. To contain another criminal.

    Backwards

    For me, it’s non-sensical. It’s backwards. It’s purely responsive, rather than proactive.

    EVERY piece of research out there suggests that there is strong links between poverty and crime, as well as, education and crime. Surely (or is it just me) crime PREVENTION is a better use of money than catering for an increase of criminals into the system?

    You can’t prevent crime; but with strong links between poverty, education and the outcome of crime, then surely dealing with poverty and education is where the focus needs to be?

    If you are educated, then you know to read and write, you’re more likely to be able to get a job, you are more likely to be able to hold down a job, and the less likely you are to find yourself needing to get into trouble.

    And I’m not even an expert in the field. I haven’t had to research this. It is pure, bloody common sense. and logical thinking.

    There are currently 9,798 inmates in the current corrections system (Sept 2016).

    Let’s divide that spending out per inmate (I’ll even include the additional 1,800 inmates that these extra beds will allow for!)

    $2,500,000,000 / 11,598 = $215,554.40NZD per inmate

    Now, that is spread out over ‘about 5 years’.

    $215,554.40 / 5 = $43,110.88NZD per inmate, per year.

    That’s an ADDITIONAL forty three thousand dollars per inmate each year for the next five years, including the extra 1,800 inmates that they are supposedly catering for.

    Currently, in education, spending on each student is $7,046.00.

    Let’s see those numbers next to each other.

    Inmates Students
    $43,110 $7,046

    What an absolute joke. Remember, the blue area in the graphs is what the corrections system is getting ON TOP OF the additional funding provided in the current budget already.

    Earlier in 2015, the Government announced a generous $359 million boost into the Education sector, but in a very restrictive way of schools being cajoled into CoL’s (Communities of Learning). To compare this with the $2.5 billion it’s just embarrassing. Here’s the graph for that as a comparison between what the Government is prepared to spend as ‘extra’. As a picture, it’s ridiculously similar to the current funding for students compared with the additional funding Corrections is getting.

     

     

    United States has this problem: Not one State spends more on student education than it does for incarceration.

    Source: http://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/education-vs-prison-costs/

     

    Now; don’t get me wrong. I am not here for a second suggesting that corrections does not need support; nor am I saying anything about how or where they spend their money. They have a job to do, and certain criminals do need “restricting in their day-to-day activities”, but lets start to look at solutions for the problem, rather than just catering for it.

    Let’s buy sunscreen rather than melanoma treatments.

    Let’s fix the hole in the bucket rather than filling it up time and time again.

    Let’s put a fence at the top of the cliff rather than an ambulance at the bottom.

    Let’s start investing in children, the next generation, the education of people, poverty, and homelessness rather than catering for the criminals that they will likely become because we continue to ignore the impact education and poverty are having on society today.

  • How to Dismantle the Public Education System in NZ

    As a follow up to my post from last year, I came across a step by step guide to how to get rid of any public education system a country has. As you look through, you can see where Hekia has ticked each step and how she managed to do it. You can also see the last remaining steps and how close she is to completely dismantling the public school system in New Zealand. How long before she’ll be able to tick those off as well?

    Enjoy!

    Below is a PDF version for you as well.

    [icon name=”file-pdf-o” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] How to Dismantle the Public Education System in NZ

    Feel free to share and spread the above infographic far and wide.

  • Wharf Jump

  • Untrained Teachers Coming to a School Near You.

    There’s been quite a lot on the go this week in educational politics.

    But this one is one that should have every parent, school, and child very concerned.

    Education Minister Hekia Parata defends trainee teachers in new legislation

    At the release of the plans for partnership schools, there was very little surprise that they could hire who ever they liked as teachers, so that specially skilled and experts in different fields could work in these schools. It was advertised for the likes of Willie Apirana or Tana Umaga could be in front of a classroom and motivate and inspire children across a range of contexts and learning. Quite why they would want to be in a classroom instead of what they already do quite well, I don’t know.

    However, at the same time, the Minister tightened the reigns over the Education Council, and the regulations around appraisal and registration were put under the spotlight.

    This week however, the Minister has made a quick amendment to the Education Legislation Bill, that will essentially allow unqualified people to teach in state schools.

    “The proposed amendment to the Education Legislation Bill allows schools to establish a “trainee teaching” position for a school.

    According to NZEI, the primary teachers’ union, a “last-minute” change lets schools cheaply hire an “unqualified person in an unsupervised teaching role” while they did an initial teacher training programme.

    There has already been a lot made of the Teach First programme, where after a ridiculously short training period, teachers are pushed out into the real world with qualification to teach in the classroom, and many criticisms have been made of it.

    But why does the Minister suddenly need more teachers? We’re told that only 15% of graduates land a full time job.

    It’s simple.

    Experienced teachers cost money through salary to keep on staff. By reducing the number of experienced staff with jobs (through whatever method) they can be replaced by beginning staff who are paid less, due to the step that they will be starting on.

    At a recent meeting, when discussing the negotiations between NZEI and the Ministry for the latest collective agreement where the Education Council will be paying for the registration of teachers, Hekia Parata mentioned that she finds it strange that teachers don’t want to pay money into the Education Council; and that instead of paying into the union (NZEI) we should be paying into the Education Council.

    (Side Note: I might actually consider this if I had some kind of say on the Education Council; but if all the members on the council are simply appointed by the minister herself, then it is undemocratic and does not warrant my ‘subscription’.)

    In addition to this, David Seymour has weighed in on a different factor, but also brought into question the place of unions in the Secondary sector. “But what I would say is that all good, hard working teachers up and down the country might want to ask themselves if they want to be a member of an organisation that puts ideology ahead of kids like this.” – David Seymour

    What does this mean? Well, quite clearly, Hekia and her understudy don’t want the unions to exist. If teachers began paying into the Education Council instead of NZEI, then the union would cease to exist. If teachers leave unions on ‘moral’ grounds, then they will cease to exist. With all the control held within the Education Council, the Ministry can begin to tighten the screws even more on registration, and essentially drive out existing teachers. This has already begun to happen by using the whole vulnerable children act and finding “predators” that exist in the system. Each new case of child abuse from teachers or workers in schools as fuel to the fire of tightening the registration process, until even those of us who are great teachers, trained fully, and have a wealth of experience will be forced out as well.

    But it’s okay. Because even before they have completed training (which is already so minimal it’s under question) those enrolled in the Teach First programme can begin teaching in permanent positions around the country to replace the teachers who leave.

    No doubt, Hekia will come out with her standard response “It’s simply not true”, and the fact that there is no evidence to suggest this will happen is not a reason to ignore this as a threat in the future. The logical steps and the progression of this thing called GERM is taking place, and we’re seeing it happen right in front of it. They are put in for good reason, such as the registration process to weed out ‘those’ teachers, but their bigger mission opens it up to much more deviant possibilities.

    Watch this space people. Watch this space!

  • I wish David would see more…

    Today Chris Hipkins’ bill was drawn out of a hat in parliament to undergo vigorous debate as to the abolishment of the charter school policy brought in by ACT, even though all historic evidence and international examples of this have all been failures.

    It’s interesting that at the same time the Labour bill to abolish charter schools comes out, that the education world in the UK prepares for EVERY public school to become a charter school (called ‘academies’ over there).

    So, this comes with welcome news. The abhorrent dealings of charter schools in this country have been well documented. It has been an utter disaster despite what the politicians who want it to succeed will say.

    Needless to say, I was pretty disgusted with this tweet from the ACT party.

    Needless to say, it received a pretty swift response:

    Well, that’s awesome. Nice one.

    What’s more, and as has been pointed out, Chris Hipkins also gained more support from his electorate than the entire ACT party did around the country. Chris Hipkins: 19,286. ACT Party: 16,689. Just saying!

    As I went deeper into the conversation I suddenly found one DBSeymour piping up into the conversation.

    If I was unimpressed before, my impressions are now severely lacking. The lack of actual intelligence begins to show that the puppet in front of us running the country as Undersecretary of Education is little more than a the blubbering buffoon that we all thought was an act. Turns out no; its actually true. We may have just found the long tail of underachievement in this country.

    The conversation that precedes this screenshot is all centred around the privatisation of education, the choice of integrated schools for those that want choice, and the question of why tax payers should be paying for charter schools where there is no accountability and that any land, property, resources, etc… are all kept by the company behind the particular charter school.

    However, despite this all being in clear view on Twitter, and being written in basic English, and as grammatically correct as one can be in 140 characters, DBSeymour seems to think that this particular question doesn’t make sense.

    Sorry David. The question makes perfect sense. The problem isn’t the question. It is you. Obviously it’s well above your level of understanding.

    Then to make things worse; the Member of Parliament; a person who should be holding the public with some kind of respect and regard because they are the ones who may vote for you, instead of continuing to attack the question, turns personal and now says that the person asking the question doesn’t make sense.

    And this is the person entrusted with implementing changes within our Education system.

    Maybe David actually needs to go back to school and learn how to comprehend basic sentences. I’m sure that this will no doubt hold him in good stead to begin entering into the public sector such as Twitter. Ah – I mean, parliament.

     

    There is a very small chance that DBSeymour actually only wanted to reply to @actparty with “You just don’t make any sense”. In which case; it’s about time someone brought that question up!

     

  • Email from the Minister

    ———- Forwarded message ———-

    From: “The Right Honorable Minister” <HerMajestyParata@ministryofed.govt.nz>
    Date: 4/02/2016 7:26 PM
    Subject: Ongoing Expenditure and Orders
    To: “Accounts” <MrFudge@ministryofed.govt.nz>

    Good morning sir,

    However, it is a short lived good morning as this morning has not been good at all. In fact it has been dreadful.

    We are all out of manuka honey which I was feeding to the Ministry’s prized stallion, “Whinnie”. His coat was looking a little dreary and I heard somewhere that smearing honey on their coat helps bring out a certain lustre. Of course, Whinnie deserves only the best of honey, and so I have ordered a large batch of 750g jars of Northern Hawkes Bay manuka honey. Of course, I will have the local supplier thrashed if these do not arrive on time. Please just add this to our outgoing expenditure for the month.

    In addition to this, I would like to make note of the lightbulb that has blown in the caretakers cupboard at our Horowhenua office. This is of course a huge breach of occupational health and safety, and will require a further seminar for all cleaners and custodians to attend. The only provider I have been able to find at short notice is in Sydney, and so I have gone ahead and booked flights and hotels, as is company government policy. I have also been in touch with Big Mike for him to start getting plans in place to rebuild the entire reception area in the Ministry of Education building in the Capital, seeing as Horowhenua are required to report to us. Seeing as this is a huge imposition on our staff, it is only right that they benefit in the way of being able to enjoy a fresh look as they enter their work place. I am hoping this will raise moral a little.

    I have told Big Mike, however, to watch the bottom line. He mentioned to me that instead of putting in an additional elevator, that he had a contact who had managed to get a cheap golden staircase which he would be willing to sell to us at minimal cost. This should cut the upgrade by at least $2million dollars from the proposed $30million.

    I am aware of the significant costs already spent on the stationery upgrade last month. Our custom made gold coated biro pens had “Ministry of Enducation” printed instead of “Ministry of Education”. I have been in touch with the printer, who while they cannot refund us, they can make another run at only 80% of the cost, seeing as there is now one less letter they have to print. I have okayed this deal.

    Lastly, I have asked our hygiene stockists to supply instructions on the inside roll of the Ministry designed loo paper. This should assist members to replace the toilet paper themselves, instead of having to hire the wait staff to come and perform their wipe duties. This should save the ministry about $400 a year. I have already terminated the contracts for the hygiene team.

    Please advise as to the arrival of my personal hover desk. The legs on my desk are getting tired, and will need to have a rest soon. The hover desk, while still being developed, should alleviate the health checks and risks that the legged desks have. I have gone ahead and approved the purchase of more of these for every Ministry of Education office around New Zealand, even though it may not be fully finished yet.

    I’m sure you’ll let me know if there are any issues with this. As usual, I’ll no doubt ignore your advice and refer you to HR. We cannot afford another Novopay debacle; although this was not really issue as it meant we did not have to pay the teachers for a while. I’m pretty sure they didn’t care anyway.

    Right. Off to set up the new charter school. This one is teaching purely in Latin, and will feature upside down learning. Evidently it’s been scientifically proven that any new learning actually has weight, and for children to really learn something properly, they should be turned upside down so that the information seeps down into their heads. Sounds more than plausible.

    Sincerely

    Her Majesty
    Ministry of Education
    New Zealand Government

    ———————————–

    Note: Privileged/Confidential information may be contained in this message and may be subject to legal privilege. Access to this e-mail by anyone other than the intended is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient (or responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you may not use, copy, distribute or deliver to anyone this message (or any part of its contents ) or take any action in reliance on it. In such case, you should destroy this message, and notify us immediately. Aforementioned email addresses, names, and expenditures are indeed made up and are intended for political satire.If you have received this email in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail or telephone and delete the e-mail from any computer. If you or your employer does not consent to internet e-mail messages of this kind, please notify us immediately. All reasonable precautions have been taken to ensure no viruses are present in this e-mail. As our company cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the use of this e-mail or attachments we recommend that you subject these to your virus checking procedures prior to use. The views, opinions, conclusions and other informations expressed in this electronic mail are not given or endorsed by the company unless otherwise indicated by an authorized representative independent of this message. Please disregard this message if it has caused undue harm or offense.
    This article has been a follow up to the posts here: http://unleash.alingham.com/2015/the-true-cost-of-charter-schools/ and here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/76717264/ministry-of-education-spends-25m-on-stairway-to-heaven-in-office-revamp  with more to follow, no doubt. http://www.newshub.co.nz/tvshows/story/ministry-of-education-faces-backlash-for-20-million-fit-out-2016021019#axzz3zXcRH7g8