A Twenty first Century Vision of Education for New Zealand

Analternative Vision.

New Zealand - the creative country or NZ the standardized country?

An Education:to develop the gifts and talents of all students

Developing the gifts and talents  of all students needs to be seen as the foundation for developing an innovative, more prosperous and fairer New Zealand. We can’t afford not to give all our children the best start in life in our schools.

 

Schools needto move away from the current government’s standardised ‘one size fits all’approach towards more personalised approach where learning is ‘tailored’ to each learner’s unique needs.

      We need to:

• To place trust in teacher professionalism as the key to improving learning

• Focus onensuring all students have the opportunity to develop their gifts and talents. We should be worried about an 'opportunity gap' more than an 'achievement gap' focussing on a few selected learning areas.

• Ensure all students leave school with the foundation skills of literacy and numeracy in place –literacy  and numeracy need to be seen as a means to an end and not as isolated subjects

• Assist schools  develop challenging integrated learning experiences that engage and develop the talents of all learners as well ensuring as in-depth content knowledge , an appreciation of the importance of environmental sustainability, and expertise in ICT

• Value  the importance of ensuring all students develop lifelong learning how to learn dispositions and attitudes

• Introduce clear and easy to understand school report cards so parents know how well their child is performing.

•  Introduce National sampling to ensure school improvement is monitored so as to recognise and share strengths and to identify areas of concern.

• Develop a more democratic system of school review to identify school strengths and areas of concern involving parents,  principal, teachers and students and also a Ministry representative

• Ensure all teachers receive professional development  and encourage inter-school collaboration to share proven pedagogy; in particular to value the expertise of practicing teachers.

• Assist low decile schools to compensate for the disadvantages students enter schools with (the one in five currently being seen as failing).

• Bridge the gap between the classroom and the workforce so young people can get into training or work by developing a process to assist all students achieve this end.

 

What is required isfor a political party to recognise that the real future assets of New Zealand are thecreative and innovative talents of all students. Schools need to be held accountable for all students leaving with their love of learning intact and their unique set of talents developed.