National Scrapping Decile System

It's not confirmed but rumour has it NZ's National led government is planning to scrap the decile funding model for schools.

The decile system works by paying schools more if their parents are poor, and less proportionately if the parents are rich.

Let's be clear about this. NZ's education system is hanging by a thread. If National really want to screw things up then all they have to do is tinker with a funding system that, while flawed, actually works most of the time.

>>Read Here About These Plans<<

If changing the system, instead of scrapping it, all they need to do is make adjustments. I don't know if they take into account the remoteness of a school, its particular learning needs, or the quality of staff. If they don't already then these sorts of things could be added to a funding formula.

But the plans to pay schools more for such things as a parent in prison or if the student or a family member has been the victim of sexual abuse, seems absurd. As a society, we pay taxes to address issues around that in separate ways.

I can see the day arriving where schools pay an enrolment signing fee for vulnerable families. Gangs would be the first to exploit a system like this. Now you might say I'm being alarmist. Really? The drug kingpins would be into it like pigs into the proverbial.

Some background - a state education is free in New Zealand. That means schools can't make you pay a donation. It means parents can't be made to pay for materials used to learn with (unless you take the materials home), and they can't be made to pay for workbooks either. They can't even make the child take a school field trip and if it is assessed, the school has to provide an alternative.

This system works. What doesn't work, the elephant in the room, is teachers don't work.

Teachers make things up as they go along, they're often incompetent and they're not subject to rigorous scrutiny. The answer to improving the quality of education in NZ is to put a blow torch to the teachers.

No government will address what is really wrong. Maybe that's because the teacher vote is important. So long as teachers get a magic carpet ride, standards will continue to slip.

More from me on education:-

http://kenhorlor.blogspot.com/2014/08/nigel-latta-tvnz-ncea.html

http://kenhorlor.blogspot.com/2014/06/reform-of-nz-education.html

http://kenhorlor.blogspot.com/2014/06/ncea.html