Bryan Bruce on NZ Education System

I watched the Bryan Bruce documentary on TV3, about the failing New Zealand education system. He touched on some areas I know only too well. Some things he got right, spot on, but other issues I feel he either overlooked or skipped over.

He touched on the unfairness of the Tomorrow's Schools programme. This reform, which did away with the old Department of Education, effectively gutted education in this country. I forget when education boards were scrapped, but it must have been at the same time.

The way the old system worked, the department was in charge of the teaching. Inspectors would assess whether a teacher was up to grade. If they didn't measure up, they'd be gone. Then the school buildings were operated by the boards in each district. The management of boards were not teachers, instead they were managers, architects, carpenters and the like. The boards paid the teachers.

The system worked. It had flaws, school buildings all looked the same and a lot of effort went in to getting them right. In the classroom; the inspectors, principals and heads of department dictated what got taught. Bruce mentioned this was a collaborative approach, yeah sure, but it was also dictatorial. Let's be honest about this.

Think of it like this. The Department of Education inspectors were like Jesuit priests. Hair shirt. No money. They'd drive around in old worn out government issue cars, and operate out of dingy offices. To get permission to spend anything they'd have to make a toll call to Wellington.

Meanwhile, the boards had fancy foreign import cars, swanky offices, all the bells and whistles.

Here's the rub - the inspectors had all the power. A room full of teachers would hush when an inspector walked in. Board staff would be suitably obsequious. Get the idea?

Now just about anything goes, and of course, schools are isolated.

What do I mean by that? Well, now schools control their buildings and employ the teachers, but they're cut off from one another, competing with one another as it were, and from that you get some that do well, while others fail. Bruce is right to question whether we want schools failing. And the ones who fail are usually poor.

Bruce's inquiry learning method is a nice idea to aim for. But heh, sometimes you have to grind it out. And children learn in different ways too, there is no one way to do anything. I think the best thing you can do is instil a lifelong love of learning.

Bruce was too uncritical of teachers. They have to share the blame. Yes, the government broke the system but teachers are too unionised, and too focused on not doing any teaching. 

I agree with Bruce and his smaller schools idea. I think the ideal school is 250-350 for primary school and 750-900 secondary. Keep it small, keep it real. Pay good teachers to stay in the classroom, don't promote them into administrative jobs.

Can NZ turn it around? Unlikely. But it can happen if we're honest about the direction the country has taken and scrap this unfortunate Tomorrow's Schools experiment.