These are MY views about education in New Zealand and sometimes further afield.
These views do not necessarily reflect the position of my employer.
At times I will comment on other issues wider than education.
I am exercising my right to speak as New Zealand is a democracy. I am a citizen, tax payer and a voter, therefore I have the right to voice my opinion, regardless of my profession.
Last week the #betterfunding bus came to the Waikato for three days. This was part of a joint campaign run by NZEI, PPTA and E Tu to encourage Education Minister Hekia Parata to truly engage with the education sector over funding to the early childhood, primary and secondary sectors. After all, the joint Paid Union Meetings attended by secondary, primary and early childhood teachers and principals, as well as support staff and cleaning and caretaking staff from all sectors resoundedly rejected the Global Funding (aka Bulk Funding) model put forward earlier this year. And for good reasons, which you can read about in Global Funding - Bulk Funding in fancy dress - why it's a bloody bad idea.
I was asked by a parent on Friday in Cambridge what was NZEI and PPTA suggesting as an alternative model. I replied with this wee spiel:
Earlier this year Hekia Parata set up the Funding Review Panel with about 19 representatives from all over the education sector, including NZEI and PPTA. The participants were excited, expecting they would be starting from the ground up, brainstorming and throwing about suggestions for how education should be funded in each area. However, their hopes on the first day were dashed. They met together in a room and then the MOE representative came in, put a pile of papers on the table and said, "These are the funding models we will discuss." There was no innovation to be had. This was typical Hekia Parata style of consultation - or as Rebecca from NZEI Head Office and I coined it: nonsultation. What we really want is proper consultation and collaboration to come up with an equitable model that will adequately fund all ECE centres, kindergartens, primary, intermediate, secondary and area schools. We need to go back to the beginning. Let's do this right and not rush it.
Of course, with the announcement by Hekia Parata of her intention not to stand for Parliament at the 2017 election on 19 October (Education minister Hekia Parata will not contest next general election, NZ Herald), you can see why Ms Parata is in such a hurry to push through the changes she wants to implement.
NZEI and PPTA know that waiting until Minister Parata reports back to Cabinet with her recommendations and for Cabinet to make a decision is too late for making the sector's opinions, and the opinions of parents (aka voters), known. That would be reactive.
Therefore they made the proactive decision to launch the #betterfunding campaign. This has involved three buses in #betterfunding livery (based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch), a postcard campaign addressed to the Minister, and two petitions for special education funding and for support staff funding.
The buses have been in action for three weeks. Last week the bus was in Hamilton for Tuesday, Friday and Saturday's march down Victoria Street to the rally in Garden Place. I was on the bus for Tuesday and Friday to support the field staff from NZEI and PPTA as we visited a variety of schools and centres.
Our first stop was Hamilton West School, where the message was warmly received by parents and caregivers. A number of staff from Hamilton West came out to help with the postcard campaign.
We dropped resources into the kindergarten on Massey Street and into Frankton and St Columbas Schools, before heading over to Fairfield Intermediate to catch them and Fairfield Primary (across the road) during their morning tea breaks.
Fairfield Primary staff brave the rain during their morning tea.
Some Fairfield Intermediate staff brave the rain during their morning tea.
We then dropped in resources to Hukanui School and left the bus on Hukanui Road to advertise the #betterfunding message during our lunch, before heading around to Woodstock Primary School to catch the staff before their lunch break ended.
Some of the Woodstock Primary School staff during their lunch break.
The bus then went to Fairfield College for their lunch break.
Fairfield College staff and students.
Fairfield College staff.
After that we went down the road to Bankwood School to drop in resources, just missing the end of their lunch break. But we did make it to Insoll Ave School just in time for the end of school at 2:30pm to encourage parents to participate in the postcard campaign. We then made it to Hamilton East School for their end of day at 3:00pm, where Prof Martin Thrupp from the University of Waikato also joined our postcard signature collecting team along with a number of Hamilton East staff members.
Hamilton East staff supporting #betterfunding
Sue Moroney, Labour List MP came to see us at the end to give her support to #betterfunding too.
Myself, Sue Moroney, Patrick from NZEI, Prof Martin Thrup and Shane from NZEI.
On Wednesday and Thursday the bus went to Tauranga, Te Puke, Whakatane and Rotorua, before starting Friday morning at Cambridge Primary School, in Cambridge. After collecting lots of parent support for the #betterfunding postcard campaign, we dropped resources into Cambridge East Primary and Cambridge High School before heading out to see the admin staff at Goodwood School.
We had been challenged by Auckland NZEI staff to get a jump shot. Denise and her fellow Goodwood administrator along with NZEI field staff Shane, Jackie and Maxine as well as I complied with the challenge.
Tamahere Model Country School, just outside of Hamilton, was our next stop. The whole school was assembled on their courts to celebrate their Book Character Dress Up Day, so all the teachers and student teachers were dressed up as well as the children. So the Tamahere School photo looks awesome - spot the principal wearing a pot on her head!
Tamahere Country Model School staff in full Book Character Dress Up Day mode supporting #betterfunding.
Knighton Normal School was next on the agenda. We got there in time for morning tea before we headed around to Tóku Mápihi Maurea Kura Kaupapa Máori to meet some teachers and children from the Kohanga.
Knighton Normal staff show their support for #betterfunding during their morning tea.
After we had lunch we headed to Hamilton Girls' High School to coincide with their lunch. Sadly the staff were very distracted dealing with the Year 13 boys from Hamilton Boys' High School doing a body paint in undies run around the Girls' High field, but some staff and students came over.
Two Girls' High staff with Bill from PPTA and Maxine from NZEI.
Two of the students who were curious enough to come and ask about the #betterfunding bus. They agreed schools needed better funding too.
We ended the day parked outside of Peachgrove Intermediate in Hamilton, across the road from Hamilton Boys' High School.
Some of the Peachgrove Intermediate staff who came out to help us with the #betterfunding postcard campaign.
On Saturday, it was our day to celebrate World Educators' Day (which was officially during our October term break). It was changed to Edcucators' Day to encompass the other school staff that are not teachers like support staff, admin staff, sports co-ordinators, lab techs, caretaking staff, etc.
In Hamilton we held a march from the Ferrybank Band Rotunda on Grantham Street, up Victoria Street to Garden Place. For safety a police car led the parade and the #betterfunding bus backed up the rear. To create some drama we had a drum band at the lead of the parade and lots of banners and #betterfunding discs flapping about.
Coming up Victoria Street.
A 360o view of the rally in Garden Place.
Professor Martin Thrupp spoke first at our rally talking about how teachers get the blame, upcoming PISA results and Poverty Action Waikato. Martin also called us to be the coalition of the unwilling. You can read Martin's speech in full at Save Our Schools NZ blog in this post: A coalition of the unwilling.
Waikato NZEI AC Chair Karen Morrison introducing Prof Martin Thrupp as the first speaker.
Sam Speedy from Hamilton Girls' High School explaining the PPTA view on CoOLs.
Sue Moroney spoke to the rally about the need to #ChangetheGovt in order to change the current direction of education policy, otherwise we will continue to get more of the same. Sue Moroney also talked about the need to put the New Zealand Curriculum back in front and centre.
Sue Moroney, Labour List MP, talking about Labour's commitment to a free quality public education system.
Jan Tinetti, NZEI National Executive and principal of Merivale School in Tauranga, speaks about Hekia Parata's legacy: bringing NZEI and PPTA together in unison to fight for #betterfunding for our quality public education system.
Jan Tinetti from NZEI National Executive.
Primary Teachers Network Leader for Waikato, Michelle Ryan, explains her passion for our quality public education system.
Michelle, the Waikato Primary Teachers Network Leader.
Karen, from Anglican Action, explains the impacts of the current government's social policies on families. She talked about how her organisation supplies food to schools for children without lunches and is now being asked for food to send home with children at the weekend so their families can eat.
Karen from Anglican Action Waikato.
Anglican Action Waikato manning the BBQ for the free sausage sizzle.
MPs from all the parties were invited as well as representatives from parties without Waikato based MPs. David Bennett, National's MP for Hamilton East was out of the country. Tim MacIndoe, National's Hamilton West MP, declined the invitation, but he did send a message to be read out. This fell to Carol Webb, the Waikato Support Staff Network Leader, who said, as support staff, she was used to doing the dirty work. Sadly, Mr MacIndoe's message showed a distinct lack of understanding of the current issues in the education sector and basically stuck to National's mantra.
Carol Webb reading out a message from Hamilton West MP Tim MacIndoe.
Green's List MP and Education spokesperson, Catherine Delahunty, said it was World Educators' Day, not Global Funding Bullshit Day. Her message of no Charter Schools, National Standards gone by lunch time and schools as community hubs when we #ChangetheGovt was well received.
Catherine Delahunty speaking about how she was tired of listening to the rubbish National say in Parliament.
We wrapped up with a waiata, Te Aroha, and poroporoaki thanks to Bill Anderson from PPTA's Hamilton office.
Bill Anderson does the poroporoaki.
You can read the tweets I sent out on the day here:
It was a great day to celebrate teachers, principals, support staff and the like in our schools and ECE centres. I got a cheeky selfie with Catherine before I went with some of my NZEI friends to have another jump shot with the #betterfunding bus to end the day.
It wouldn't surprise you that tweeting events like this encourages discussion on Twitter. I can't find the original tweet that @Chrisholden24 sent me to initiate this this conversation. Maybe he has deleted it. But this is where I school him on the realities of Global Funding/Bulk Funding. Enjoy.
On Tuesday 9 August a momentus event happened. NZEI and PPTA launched a joint campaign to educate the wider public about the Education Funding Review. They also announced there will be fifty joint Paid Union Meetings held around the country from Monday 5 September. We are currently in the middle of them.
And I will be attending my Paid Union Meeting in Hamilton with bells on this Monday 12 September.
The review was set up by the Minister of Education, Hekia Parata, due to the decile funding system currently used to fund schools being seen as "a blunt object". Many different groups were asked to participate in the review, including Louise Green the NZEI Te Riu Roa president and Angela Roberts the PPTA president.
To date, no one from the Education Funding Review Panel has stood up and said publicly: "Global Funding is great and we support it". Absolutely no one.
Hekia Parata is disappointed in this action and she told journalists that no decisions have yet been made, that consultation is continuing. She claimed that NZEI and PPTA had left the Review table. A no point did either Louise or Angela say that either organisation was withdrawing from the Review.
On the Paul Henry breakfast show (8/9/16) Hekia said that teachers had had many opportunities to be consulted as the Ministry of Education had run 80 roadshows around the country outside of school time. Where was my personal invitation Ms Parata? I was aware of a couple of meetings - during school time when no working teacher could attend. Teachers simply were not enabled to attend these meetings, so Hekia is once again reinventing the reality of the situation (not unlike how she "has the support of the Special Education Association"). These Paid Union Meetings have been the only opportunity for teachers to be consulted.
When the Education Funding Review was announced, Hekia Parata said that the panel would be reporting back to her before the end of August/first week of September. We expected an announcement from Ms Parata over this at the end of last week.
No announcement.
She said on Paul Henry's show she was still awaiting the report and recommendations.
I had been suspecting the Education Funding Review panel had reported back last week (not that she only received the report last night or this morning as she claims in the House today) and recommended that her proposals were rubbish and the panel would not support them. Hekia Parata has engaging in a round of PR opportunities over the last two days (Paul Henry 8/9/16, Radio NZ's Nine to Noon 7/9/16) trying to swing public support her way as NZEI and PPTA have garnered the lion's share of the media over the last few days.
As I was in the middle of writing this, Hekia Parata released the recommendations of the Education Funding Review panel in Parliament during Question Time this afternoon, which I will discuss further down.
While Hekia claims that NZEI and PPTA are being silly in holding these meetings, this is the two education unions being proactive because we don't trust Hekia and we want to make sure our voices are heard before it is too late. Louise and Angela sit on that working party that is to advise the Minister and are obviously concerned by what is being presented to them and what is being said. Hekia can say that nothing is set in concrete, but that is not the case. We can not afford to wait as Hekia suggests, because to do nothing is to let the public think we agree with these proposals.
These meetings were planned for school time to send a very strong message to the Government as well as the wider community about the seriousness of the concerns NZEI and PPTA hold about Global Funding. It was considered that the inconvenience to parents and students for two to three hours was better than the long term, over a generation, that Global Funding would create due to under funding, higher class numbers and less teachers.
The eighteen members of the Education Funding Review Panel went into the first meeting expecting a blank slate and the ability to brainstorm proposals.
What they got was a wad of paper on the table by the Ministry of Education representative who said "This is what we will be looking at. That is the proposal."
Hekia Parata can protest all she likes and say what she says to the media, but that was the reality of our representatives on that Education Funding Review Panel.
This is about the government abandoning their commitment to staff schools appropriately and provide the best education for all children.
Under the current system there are formulas for staffing according to the roll. Under Global Funding that goes. The result is that teachers will be seen as a fiscal risk and no new teacher appointments will be permanent - every teacher will have to reapply for their position every year and have no job security.
Think about how this will impact any teacher's ability to get a mortgage to buy a home or plan a family.
It also means that as an experienced teacher at the top of the scale I would be unemployable as I would be considered expensive.
This will result in less teachers so then there will be a higher number of kids in every class as teacher:student ratios would go out the door. Less teachers mean a narrowing of the Curriculum.
Hekia Parata argues that she is not wedded to anything yet, that how it will work has not been worked out. It is fully expected that Hekia will be taking her recommendations to Cabinet in October. How can she take a half baked proposal to Cabinet? How do I know it is half baked? Because every question asked to her by one of her political opponents or a journalist asking the detail gets the reply that details have not been worked out yet! This is the typical National Party approach to developing policy: put forward a half baked idea and make it up as we go - that's how we got National Standards, Charter Schools, Investing in Educational Success not to mention the current housing crisis, climate change, employment law, health and safety....
As I mentioned further up, as I was writing this, Hekia Parata released the recommendations from the Education Funding Review panel (which I bet she has been sitting on for a week). This was published by the Education Review magazine (8/9/16):
Six out of seven of the School Funding Review proposals will go forward for further work following the Funding Advisory Group's report on the proposals. The unpopular global budget proposal was rejected by the group, following intense opposition from teachers who feared a return to the days of bulk funding.
The six proposals the majority of the Group agree should proceed for further work are:
Taking a per-child approach to funding
Additional funding for those most at risk of underachievement
Supplementary funding for small and isolated schools
Proposals over the way property funding is delivered
Better accountability for student achievement
Supporting a diversity of education options
Education Minister Hekia Parata says she was ‘not surprised’ by the Group’s recommendation that the proposed global budget not proceed to the next stage of policy development. “The Group’s report, and together with feedback from around 90 regional meetings with teachers and principals, will help inform my report to Cabinet on the options to take forward. The insight from staff right on the frontline of education is invaluable”, says Ms Parata. “I want to make sure that we take the time to get these vitally important decisions right. That is why our timeline for implementation at the earliest would be 2019.”
Well there is a surprise - NOT. No one wants Global Funding that was on the group.
It was announced during Question Time in Parliament today. Here is the video, with an initial patsy question from David Seymour, ACT's only MP and the Under Secretary for Education, so watch if you have a strong government. Bright note was The Speaker telling David Seymour his questions slagging off our Paid Union Meetings were out of line.
You can read what the wider media has reported on the release of the Funding Review recommendations here:
Even though Global Funding was not in the recommendations to the Minister, this section from the above Newshub coverage should cause the education sector to continue to be wary:
And the Funding Advisory Group agrees say in its report that it'd be too costly and risky.
"Schooling sector representatives of the Advisory Group do not support the introduction of global funding for state and state-integrated schools and consider any potential benefits are outweighed by the costs and risks of implementation."
However some of the group did note that with tweaks the plan could work and alternatives couldn't be ruled out in future.
"If the risks around loss of clarity around staffing entitlement could be addressed in the global budget, there may be merit in exploring an alternative."
This portion of the above Stuff article should also have the education sector on continued alert:
Parata acknowledged strong opposition to the measure but was not prepared to take global budgets off the table ahead of a discussion by Cabinet. "We all know that children are different, therefore there will be different challenges in different schools, so the underlying theme is how do we give schools choices and flexibility. "The global budget is purely a mechanism for paying. It isn't about how we put together how much a school should get." Asked if it was too soon to say global budgets were "dead and buried", Parata responded: "Yes it would, because that isn't consistent with Cabinet process."
I do not believe for a second that Global Funding is dead and buried in Hekia Parata's mind as indicated in the NZ Herald. That writer must be very naïve to take what Hekia says to be gospel.
For Hekia Parata to push forward with Global Funding any further would be a folly. It is not just teachers wanting to have a "row" with the government as John Key implied on his morning breakfast TV rounds on Monday, it is a whole sector backed by parents who are not happy at the potential outcomes of Global Funding being implemented.
I love Rod Emmerson cartoons. They cut to the core of the issue. This one is from 2012.
If Hekia Parata has not learned from her failed battle with class sizes in 2012, she really has failed the standard as a Minister of Education.
My biggest fear is that the drama over Global Funding is a smokescreen to bring in performance pay and make PaCT and Communities of Learning compulsory... but that's another post another day...
This week is the first week of the term break. Every term break there are teacher only days and planning days and professional learning days and conferences. This week three conferences ran across the week, NZEI's Annual Conference, PPTA's Annual Conference and the School Library Conference (SLANZA). I only found out on Tuesday that there were also conferences running for ERO and PaCT in Auckland as well. So many teachers, principals, support staff and other educational professionals were well involved in many different conferences throughout the land.
NZEI began its conference entitled It's Got to be About the Child (see the picture on the left to see one of the banners) on Sunday. They had a full agenda planned with different sectors within the Institute demonstrating their year's work and what was to come as well as CTU President Helen Kelly was speaking, Prof Bob Lingard from Queensland as the key note speaker and addresses from the Australian Education Union and Education International.
What was of note was our Minister of Education, Hekia Parata, was again not on the agenda. Several weeks ago I had been told she had declined the invitation.
While not an official attendee for this year's conference, I decided to gate crash on Monday because of the speakers. I really enjoyed Monday, and was as surprised as everyone when Louise Green stood up before the afternoon session and told the meeting that the Minister's office had rung to say Ms Parata wanted to speak to the membership the following afternoon and was rearranging her afternoon to do so.
So what prompted this?
I was not at the NZEI President's Awards Dinner on Sunday night (obviously), but I was told that Bill Noble, former NZEI President, did comment that previous to the current Minister, all the Ministers of Education of the day had spoken to the NZEI Annual Meeting each year.
It was then observed that the invited Ministry official was seen with two phones, and was texting away furiously on one of them. To the Minister perhaps?
Join the dots from Sunday night to Monday afternoon.
Before the Minister arrived on Monday afternoon I engaged in the following tweeting exchange with the PPTA:
What was interesting was that after her greeting, Hekia address my tweet first. Oops.
During the "acknowledgement" of my tweet, the Minister stated that she was supposed to be in China this week on a delegation regarding education or the like. Well I know that Gerry Brownlee was in China on the day, apparently putting a deal about leasing pandas on the table.
The Minister also stated that she was going to Finland in a few weeks (here's hoping she actually takes a lot of notice of how they do things there!) and so her office decided she couldn't be out of the country so much, and withdrew her from the China trip.
She then claimed that the invitation was not reactivated within her office.
Looking at the explanation, then marrying it up with the fact that she had just arrived from two conferences in Auckland that day (the ERO and PaCT conferences), as well as the fact that she had been confirmed to speak at the PPTA conference in the next few days for several weeks... and well... you can see I thought (in polite terms), "CODSWOLLOP MINISTER!!"
Anyhow, you can watch the Minister for yourself in this video below.
The Minister aggressive at the beginning of her speech. She then whipped through a 17 page speech in 12 minutes. Note the video in 19 minutes long. Ms Parata flung a lot of figures and numbers at us to justify what she has done.
Ms Parata also claimed that she wanted to be held to account. That is very difficult if you do not front up to us each year, if you decide to show if three years after your last visit.
The Minister did not look at all comfortable with herself in front of the NZEI membership at all during her visit.
There were no questions. There was no time for questions. She had arrived at about 4:10pm and had to catch a flight at Rotorua Airport at 5:15pm.
Please also watch National Executive Jan Tinetti's response to the Minister. This is very clever and pointed.
Below is the Twitter feed from before, during and after Ms Parata's speech as a Storify.
Two days later, Hekia Parata spoke to the PPTA (I hope this embed works!). Her demeanour was more relaxed, comfortable. I wondered if it was because it was a smaller room with less delegates, if the NZEI members are more scary than the PPTA members... She was cracking jokes, spontaneously breaking into te reo (then having to translate when she realised 90+% of the attendees were not fluent bilingually)... it was all going so well until she got to answer a question on charter schools. Watch and see... by the way this video is an hour long (if it is working).
On the plus side, at least Hekia Parata can remember her stance on the 1981 Springbok Tour, unlike the Prime Minister.
However, there is no comparison between apartheid and making a stance against charter schools. I believe that the Minister may have been disappointed at the lack of media interest in her this week and was looking for a hook to get the media to sound bite. Well it worked. Here is an sample of the media coverage after this speech on 1 October 2015:
These articles were pretty much the first lot of press she had gotten since the 22 of September.
The PPTA has the right to make a stand against charter schools. They have chosen to do so by not being professionally involved with charter schools or their staff. This trainee teacher was still employed at the charter school at the time he wanted to do his student teacher practicum at a state school - hence the decision not to have him at the school by PPTA members who would have been required to mentor him. As the PPTA has pointed out, those who have left charter schools to work back in the state schooling system have been welcomed back. Besides, if charter schools are so fabulous, perhaps he could have done his practicum at one of those. #justsaying
So some other issues to raise my ire:
Targeted PLD
The Minister said that there would be targeted PLD in reading, writing, maths, science and digital fluency along with a pilot for PE and health (note that National killed all the effective PLD in these areas in 2009 when they introduced the flawed National Standards and focused all PLD on implementing that very badly).
This PLD would be targeted at the regions with "consistently poor achievement data" - that would be Northland and Gisborne/East Coast schools - because "as tax payers we should be very concerned" that the current PLD has been ineffective.
To me that means that the Minister will be interfering directly in these schools with how they run and dictating what they do. Where is the flexibility and collaboration in that?
While more PLD would be welcome, the Minister's signal that the Education Council (aka EDUCANZ) will most likely be responsible for this signals more warning lights. It raises questions over the flexibility of PLD to meet the needs of individual teachers and schools, centralising education functions (after 26 years of decentralisation) and the ability the Education Council to administer and deliver PLD.
Funding of Schools
The Minister brought up how schools will be funded and the fact that it is now on the table for review. While she says that no decisions have been made yet, think back to March last year when she accidentally slipped to a Herald on Sunday reporter that schools would be funded based on achievement data... and then back tracked after the article was printed. From the article School funding shakeup looms (16 March 2014), I've copied these quotes
The Government did not want to fund schools according to their raw results in National Standards or NCEA, but on how much teachers had helped students to learn over the course of six months or a year, "the consistency and the progress". "You've got to work out which school is delivering achievement, which schools are focusing on how they raise the quality of their teaching and leadership practice, and how is that translating into kids demonstrating that they're learning more?"
To hear Hekia come out with comments on this during her speeches worries me. Angela Roberts from the PPTA was pointed in her reply to the Minister after her speech that the four meetings a year with the Education Forum the Minister established was not enough to collaborate and consult with the schooling sectors on how funding will work. I agree.
The Education Act is a dinosaur
The Minister stated in both speeches that the Education Act is a dinosaur and that there were parts of it that dated back to 1867. I'm pretty sure that is the part of the Act that actually established education provision in New Zealand, and without it there would legally be no education provision allowed. #justataguess
The Minister has said that children are not mentioned at all in the Education Act previously, that is keeps tripping her up (which means the Act is stopping her from completely destroying our quality public education system), and that she wants it to be child centric and all in one easy document.
Great - just make sure that there is full and proper consultation with the sectors and all stakeholders. And listen and use it. Don't ignore us like you did with the Teachers Council!!
Early Childhood Education
Ms Parata acknowledged to the NZEI Conference that we had concerns over ECE funding being frozen. She then proceeded to tell us how much more money is being spent on ECE now than in 2009 and that 98% of providers were meeting the standards.
What the Minister failed to consider was, that while more money is going into ECE, more children are participating in ECE and the funding per child has not increased.
Also, minimum standards does not necessarily equate to quality in ECE. She did not address that.
Support Staff
Support Staff did not even rate a mention with the Minister.
IES/Joint Initiative
The Minister congratulated both unions on their participation with the MOE over IES/Joint Initiative. But there was a smugness in how she gushed over the 31% of members who voted to return a 78% Yes vote for the Joint Initiative to go ahead. NZEI has ceded all the power they earned in their rejection of IES in 2014 by taking the pig with lipstick that the Joint Initiative became after the negotiations with the MOE to the members and getting them to vote for it by saying it was the best we would get.
Jan Tinetti did acknowledge that the members were uneasy over the Join Initiative developments. I'd say the members are furious. I know I am, and this decision has meant I will not return to classroom teaching next year because I will not be party to the GERMification of our education system. NZEI threw out the inoculation to the GERM by presenting this vote to the membership.
I know the Joint Initiative team put in a lot of hard work. They collected a lot of data, examples and information that will continue to be useful in many ways. But I consider what was put up to the membership to be an insult to their hard work.
I see the Community of Schools/Community of Learning model to be the vehicle to controlling what is taught and how, introducing and embedding PaCT in schools (because Hekia waxed lyrical on how it would make our workload better - yeah, right), bringing in super principals and replacing BOTs for each schools with Boards covering the cluster. Just a few predictions. I'll be devastated to see them come to fruition.
Invitations to the conferences
As stated above, Hekia said she would attend if invited. She said that at the NZEI conference, and the PPTA conference, but her tone of voice inferred she had not been invited. After the Minister left, last year's invitation to the NZEI Conference and the rejection from the Minister's office was put up on the big screens. A comment was made as to "I don't know what goes on in the Minister's office but she is invited every year."
Today I challenged Ms Parata directly on her Facebook page about what she said in regards to invitations to conferences at the NZEI and PPTA conferences. Her response was quick and concise.
I believe that this Minister of Education is incredibly dangerous. What she has done, along with what Anne Tolley did before her (and she was a shocking Minister of Education too), and what Ms Parata is about to do will be devastating to our quality public education system, and too much of it will be irreparable if we don't stand up as NZEI members to stop her from implementing even more flawed right wing neo liberal policies. If we don't, then we have failed the standard as professionals of the education sector.
One Friday afternoon, the 15th of August to be exact, after school, I made my way, at the speed limit only, to Hamilton, an hour's drive from my school. My destination was the Public Achievement Information meeting by held by Hekia Parata at the St Peter's Cathedral Hall.
I only knew about this meeting due to a member of the NZEI National Executive telling a meeting I attended about it the previous Saturday. He then emailed me the details and my principal agreed that I could attend.
I did arrive half an hour late. I had to complete the IES (Investing in Education Success) voting process for my school as I am the NZEI worksite representative. A valid reason to be late in my opinion. I was assured by my NZEI National Executive friend and another friend who is a Board of Trustees chair that I hadn't missed anything other than a lesson on reading the PAI statistics and graphs.
PAI - that means Public Achievement Information - and I only found that out by googling "PAI meeting Hekia Parata" after the meeting because no one else knew what those letters stood for.
So what is this Public Achievement Information?
It is the National Standards data displayed for public consumption broken down by city and district council.
The purpose of these public meetings is to present the 2013 New Zealand public achievement information. The wider context is not just the results but the "so what", the challenges we face and some insight into the Ministry’s response to those challenges. This set of results represent the New Zealand wide education system view, covering early childhood education participation and NCEA level two achievement (two of the Ministry’s Better Public Service targets), along with a wider set of indicators including National Standards, Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori and school leavers. We can put these in to a local context and enable you to use this data in your communities and schools. It is about supporting you in having the right discussions and making the right decisions in order to raise student achievement. The Minister of Education, Hon Hekia Parata will speak at the meetings. The Minister will be accompanied by Ministry Deputy Secretaries Lisa Rodgers and Katrina Casey.
So I had arrived for question time.
The meeting in the St Peter's Hall in Hamilton. This photo comes from www.stuff.co.nz
The woman asking the question when I sat down was first giving a comprehensive background to it.
Her intelligent son, who wants to be a doctor, has a conduct disorder. It was effectively managed and controlled at primary school. The wheels got wobbly at Intermediate. The wheels fell off at High School where the child ended up being excluded during his Year 10 year. By the time of this meeting, he had been out of school for seven months and had only just been accepted for Correspondence School. In the meantime, this boy's personal worth had taken a dive and he had attempted to take his own life.
So the question asked was what is Hekia doing for kids who slip through the system due to behaviour issues?
Hekia replied that it's not what she's doing personally, but what schools are doing. She said that quality teachers and good decision making by BOTs would solve this boy's issues. The room groaned.
She then went on to describe PB4L and other work programmes focused on behaviour. Hekia admitted that special education is under funded and needs work. She said a range of things were in place to help this boy.
But cleatly it's not working, because then the parent said that despite ticking every box her kid was denied help. The MOE had admitted to this parent that hundreds of kids like her son missing out. Personally, I know at least three kids who fit this profile. If the MOE has no confidence in their own systems to support at risk learners with behaviour issues, then how can parents?
The next question was about IES and how a community of schools selected will work.
Hekia replied it's about making transition between ECE to primary to intermediate to college. Schools and centres will opt in and look at these pathways, what barriers are in place and how to soothe them. The community of schools will be asking questions like:
What are the typical pathways within a community?
What is the baseline data?
What are the needs in that community?
These must be common challenges to work on together in addition to schools own goals. Then the executive principal, expert teacher and lead teacher (or whatever the new titles are) will work together to spread excellence and work on the needs identified.
Hekia then went on to say that the Prime Minister announced it in January so it could be co-constructed with the profession. I choked a little on that comment.
Hekia then said that the MOE had been in negotiations with the PPTA for month and that we would know where NZEI stood the following week.
Since then PPTA have finished their negotiations and their members will vote on it in early term four, well after the general election. And 93% of the 70% of NZEI teacher members who participated thoroughly rejected the option to vary the Primary Teachers Collective Agrrement, and primary principals also rejected their collective agreement being varied as well.
It is intended that the IES structure will be in place for term one 2015 if National is returned to government.
A question was then asked by Terry Casey, the principal of Kaihere School, in regards to the union's (NZEI) message over the IES consultation that has happened.
Hekia replied by talking about the minister's forum that has been in place during the last two years. She talked about it being a voluntary involvement. Then she explained that NZEI took itself out at the end of 2013, but NZEI still welcome and able to participate. Her tone of voice at this point was condescending despite the polite phrases used.
Hekia then went on to explain about the delegation to Asia in October 2013. Judith Nowataski (the NZEI president) was invited to be part of the trip and took part in reporting back. Angela Roberts (PPTA president) and other education group representatives (STA, Spaanz, NZPF) also participated in the trip and reporting back.
After that development of IES started (at this stage the only parties involved with the MOE and STA - not even the MOE's own research unit knew anything about it and were appalled to find out on the day of John Key's State of the Nation speech that this policy had been developed without the appropriate research to back it up).
Then the IES announcement was made on the day of the State of the Nation (and every education group was blind sided). The work streams began in February and NZEI has been on all work streams as they want. Hekia explained that as things are resolved in the work streams, it is made public.
During this little explanation of how it all worked, Hekia's distain for NZEI was palpable. While she made pretty phrases about NZEI, the condescension dripped.
It is time to clear this up for the Minister. This is why NZEI withdrew two times from consultation with the Minister and the MOE:
The Minister's Forum was established after the class size debacle. NZEI participated, but it became apparent during 2013 that it's voice was being drown out due to the process. All recommendations to the Minister were made by majority consensus. Often NZEI had a contrary view to the final recommendation due to it not being a good fit in the primary or ECE sector or contrary to the collective agreements of the members. As a result, after consulting the membership, NZEI made the decision to withdraw from the Minister's Forum in December. Prior to the withdrawal the IES proposal was never discussed in the Forum.
NZEI did participate in the work streams and consultation on IES from February 2014. But again it found that the process for recommendations being forwarded to the Minister was by majority consensus. Again, NZEI found that its contrary view was drowned out, and that to stay within the process was to condone recommendations that they did not support. That is why when the MOE finally presented its claim to vary the collective agreements of primary teachers and principals, NZEI went back to the membership to get a mandate before opening negotiations with the MOE. 70% of the primary teaching and principal members responded by the due date, and 93% of those members refused to begin the negotiations and supported an alternative way to spend the $359 million allocated for IES directly on students.
As Hekia spoke, I looked over to my friend from the NZEI executive. He was exceeding the National Standard on Self Management. I know it grated him to hear Hekia defame the decisions of the NZEI executive and the membership, and that is why I am writing this part of the blog about the meeting to clarify the position NZEI found itself in.
A grandparent stood to speak and commended the minister for her good work with Maori & Pacifica achievement. Obviously blue party faithful.
A parent stood to speak about student engagement and presence in school. They wanted to know why teachers and management are still sending kids out of class, and even home from school, for uniform issues?
Hekia stated that BOTs are responsible for issues such as the setting of uniform standards and the rules around it. Parents and communities need to have their own discussion with BOTs about the standards and rules of uniforms. But if the stand down process isn't being done properly go to the school and talk to the principal, then if you are still not satisfied talk to the BOT. If you feel a satisfactory resolution is not met, then you contact the MOE for help. If you are still not satisfied, then you contact the Minister, then ombudsman. Hekia then went on to say that stand downs and exclusions are at a 20 year low.
Finally there was a question about that old chestnut, Novopay. Where are costs at now and where are we up to now?
Hekia said Novopay was clearly a dog. She then explained that the government was now establishing a crown owned enterprise and Talent2 had been negotiated out. The education payroll is the most difficult payroll in the country with numerous changes each fortnight. She said to solve this problem it would be ideal to simplify collective agreements without losing conditions or allowances. Good luck with figuring out how to do that.
Shane Ngatai from Rhode Street School then asked a question regarding deciles and changing of the Education Act.
Hekia explained that the current Education Act is 25 years old with amendment after amendment. The Act needs simplifying, modifying and currently doesn't really mention students. She explained that deciles divide schools into ten categories according to socio-economic data and was well intended but a blunt instrument. She believes funding has to be about the need of the children, and not a proxy for quality. Hekia said that according to PISA data, decile 1 schools are producing quality achievement just like decile 10 schools.
The Minister then went on to say that she loves the job of being Minister of Education (obviously a response to the outgoing Minister of Health, Tony Ryall's, valedictory speech in Parliament a few days before). She said being the Minister of Education was the best job in world. She then said her own education was in decile 1 & 4 schools (funny thing is though is that decile funding was not invented until the 1990s by the then National government and all Hekia's formal primary and secondary schooling would have been in the '60s and '70s, so that really doesn't fly Minister).
The next question: Who would IES roles report to?
They will report to their own BOTs. These roles will not be hierarchical, but horizontal according to the Minister (ahem... how?). Hekia called it a new way of leading and the focus of these leaders will be coming in to lead the delivery of the achievement focuses. She then went on to claims some elements of the IES model come from Finland (which ones are those Minister, because it looks nothing like the Finland model) as well as Asia.
A parent then stood up saying special education system was under funded and asked what the Minister would do about it.
Hekia replied that it is not an either/or situation. She said the quality of tching means special education kids succeed (collective groan in the room because we know that our access to specialised experts and teachers has been restricted and strangled). But $359 million for IES is not for special education said Hekia. Its about improving quality of teaching for all. And didn't really answer the question at all....
