Educating the Dragon

One of the Education stories of the day was reported on National Radio this morning . School Uniforms pricing and policy is being called into question. Several news blogs and news sites are running the story.
It comes at an interesting time for me as last Sunday a friend of mine was talking about the cost of their kids school uniform as being upward of $700. I thought about this wondered if they had their numbers wrong but on the radio this morning I discover that the cost of a school skirt could be upward of $100! That total bill appears quite enormous.
Then I got thinking about the fact that school is said to be "free at the point of delivery". Hmmmm…. I think not.
With the cost of school uniform being… $700. Yearly fees being $500, stationery levy being $50 it all too soon mounting up. And I fear I am only touching the surface.
What areas of ‘voluntary contribution’ have I missed?
I consider the school ski trip and the Japanese lessons with the specialist tutor after hours or the violin practise at 3pm on a Wednesday to be areas where parents have a genuine choice as to whether they opt in or out.
But what about the rest?
I must ask around what a parent has to pay. I was wondering how much it would be for where you are? And what categories that comes under?

On the radio this morning was a report out about how ‘unqualified’ many of our school principals are.

Since 2005 the ‘First time Principal’s course’ has been running. Not being one I only have staffroom discussion to go by, but many of the areas under consideration there are designed to enable many Principal’s to make the transition between ‘classroom teacher’ to ‘School Manager’. Though there are no formal qualifications required for a Principal the ‘career route many take through ‘syndicate leader, senior management, DP/AP surely offers many the opportunity to develop their people management skills and ‘school-wide’ perspective. I know the UK offers qualifications for those aspiring principals by way of the NPQH. Perhaps that is the line we in New Zealand need to go down. But to here of the closure of the Principal’s Development Programme Centre at such a time as this does not reflect well on the emphasis and direction the government places on School Management.

Will we really want to undergo a course qualifying us for school leadership without the guarantee of securing a Principalship prior to spending what will be a large amount of our savings?

I have heard of, and quite like, the model where a Principal – with a teaching background- is responsible for the school, as they are currently but then instead of employing that DP or second AP they employ a Vice Principal (Finance) or some other fancy title that means they take responsibility for the ‘business side’ of the school management. I know some secondary school do this already.

Could Primaries do something similar?

On Tuesday the Gisborne Herald reported Anne Tolley ’s appointment to Minister of Education. I for one am delighted to welcome in a new Minister of Education.

I understand that there is a general uneasiness aobuth the National Parties policy as to national exams. But their there was a catagorical statement that there were to be no national exams for primary students .

However the following does state the objective in broad strokes:

Clear National Standards: Set national standards in reading, writing and numeracy. The standards will describe all the things children should be able to do by a particular age or year at school. They will be defined by benchmarks in a range of tests.

Effective Assessment: Require primary schools to use assessment programmes that compare the progress of their students with other students across the country. Schools will choose from a range of tests, but there won’t be national exams.

Upfront Reporting: Give parents the right to see all assessment information, and to get regular reports about their child’s progress towards national standards. Schools will also have to report each year on the whole school’s performance against national standards.

We shall have to see where the priorites lie when the policies start rolling. I for one am in favour of a more vigorous assessment policy. There has to be an equilibrium between the UK league table idea and the rigid flexibility focused on "methodology".

So my question is:

Is the National policy on education percieved by the teaching profession as a positive or negative?

The priority has to be ‘raising the standards’ – of course we have to raise the standard in Education- Why would we lower them. But I’m wondering how best to do that without developing the League tables for schools idea that has had such a detrimental effect on the teaching profession. How do we raise student achievement without beating the life (and passion) out of teaching?

Shane Taurima questions Helen over Labours failure toward Maori boys. Youth appreticeships form 13?? Surely there is a need for a more though grounding in education than that. I feel that this is spelling of the 19th century model Ken Robinson spoke of with broadening out the ‘working class’ education for the majority of the ’skilled’ labour. Perhaps if education isn’t suiting my kid I could just send off down the pit to work those blast door for ther pit pony’s and leave the educating for those smarter kids!

All I want for my kid in primary school is that he is learning to read and write. Perhaps the two of them are talking about opposite ends of the education system. Of course I want my primary kid to learn to read and write. But equally, I’ll want my 16-17 year old being prepared for the work in the 21st century, I’m not sure appreticeships will address that issue.

Now we’re onto parents paying for Free education. Of course if I want my kid to go on the school trip skiing or to Japan or on some geographical fieldtrip to investigate lava flow I’m willing to pay for that… It looks, feels and probably is above and beyond the classroom experience. But would I expect to be charged for the regular ‘in class’ education of my child, certainly not if it is touted as ‘Free’.

My current situation is partly board funded due to the Ministry of Education stating that the class size is too small to warrent an extra teacher. So what does ‘board funded” mean? It means the school is having to raise addition funds to pay for me to drive up the road and deliver that ‘free’ education labour talks about.

Now I’m off on a rant so feel free to stop reading… but….

It’s a little like the ‘free 20 hours’ for 3-4 year olds. That scheme was under funded and had to be subsided by the parents. The hourly rate underthat scheme was too little to support the wage requirements of the teaching staff. If the government came out saying it was a subsidised scheme there would have been no issue but them saying it was free caused a right row in the ECE sector.

Helen Clark highlights the fact that we do not have to pay these school contributions. Wow what a statement. I’d love to see what would happen if, as a result of that statement ALL PARENTS, EVERYWHERE, right across the country went into their schools and asked for a refund. What would happen to those school budgets this late in the school year.

This is well worth having a go, 140 character book review

Go to Dangerously Irrelevent post here , and leave your comment.