New Zealand schooling system should provide for all, not the chosen few - PPTA
The vast majority of New Zealanders want their taxes to fund an education system that caters for all, particularly those with additional needs, says PPTA Te Wehengarua president Chris Abercrombie.
“A two-tier system of schooling, where one tier is desperately under-funded and under-resourced, while another tiny tier is funded to succeed, is not the way we do things, and not what most New Zealanders want for our public education system”, he said.
He was commenting on the announcement today of five more charter schools, which will open next year.
“It is extremely disappointing to see hard-earned taxes being poured into a tiny number of charter schools when there are so many existing schools around the country in need. For example, one of the proposed charter schools, the BUSY school in Christchurch, is offering what all New Zealand students who require additional learning support deserve. At the moment, many of them are not having their needs met, as the alternative education system has been left to languish under successive governments.”
Apparently, the small number of young people whose applications for the BUSY school are successful, will have access to the national curriculum as well as a vocational curriculum to improve their employment opportunities, and they will be provided with a wrap around support system.
“Every young person at risk of falling through the cracks at school deserves this – not just a handful of students chosen at the whim of a sponsor. This is an island in an ocean of need.”
Chris Abercrombie said it broke teachers’ hearts to see extremely niche schools, such as a Remuera-based French language school, being funded with public money when state schools needed more teachers, building upgrades and pastoral and learning support.
Chris Abercrombie said an international education report (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) released overnight shows clearly that Aotearoa New Zealand students need a lot more learning and pastoral support to improve their achievement.
“Yet the Government blithely announces today it is funding an elite language school. Using public money to fund such an elite school amidst so much actual need shows how out of touch this Government is with what is actually happening in Aotearoa New Zealand.”