40% of Kids Cannot Read

It isn't just the US, this is a problem throughout the English speaking world. AI will make it worse. The children are not reading.

The Kids Can't Read

This is America, but the English-speaking world is experiencing widespread illiteracy. The Latin world is fine; they still read. But we need to get children reading, and we need to worry less about feelings. Just read, anything.

New Zealand Government vs Opposition

It is good to see the New Zealand government and the Opposition coming up with ideas that reflect totally different perspectives.

Labour are NZs Opposition party and they've recently announced a capital gains tax (CGT) as a central policy leading into the General Election in 2026. This is good because it makes them unelectable. CGT's are political kryptonite in NZ.

NZ doesn't need a CGT. You cannot tax your way to prosperity. Think like Texas.

Australia is often compared to NZ. Oz has CGT, stamp duty, and a means tested retirement at age 67. Meanwhile, NZ has no CGT, no stamp duty, no inheritance taxes, no gift duty, and retirement at age 65 is not means tested. These are key points of difference between the two and what makes NZ superior to Australia. 

What NZ could do is lower taxes. Thinking like Texas means no tax and backing business. Businesses create employment and drive the economy forward. 

Don't think like Labour. Once a CGT gets hold, it'll expand and morph into a wealth tax. NZ will end up like the UK, and no-one wants to be like that hellhole.

Then, this week the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford made her stand by introducing a new school curriculum for years 0-10. It is a knowledge-based curriculum, you know, students will have to know stuff. No more rainbow hugs and unicorn kisses. This is long overdue, and of course it's being panned by all the vested interests who want to avoid doing any work.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/577108/govt-releases-full-draft-of-curriculum-for-years-0-10

Fixing Falling Standards in Education

Thomas Sowell nails it.

NCEA Scrapped

Regular visitors to my blog will know I am very critical of New Zealand's secondary education system of awarding qualifications. Known as NCEA, it is very flawed and ended up being a dog's breakfast of feelgood claptrap mixed with unicorn kisses and rainbow hugs.

Well, it is being scrapped, and not before time. This should have happened 20 years ago.

But, the devil is in the details as they say, and what replaces it really matters. What I expect will happen, is the system will be dumbed down even more. That's so that the government will be able to trumpet how they've restored things, while hiding they've actually got worse still. Basically, things have got so bad, that the system had to be scrapped as too many students were failing even basic literacy and numeracy assessments.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/568958/ncea-changes-some-aspects-like-a-step-backwards-in-time-principal

The government's plans to replace the NCEA system are on a tight timeline and will require a lot of support, say teachers.

After more than 20 years as New Zealand's official secondary-school qualification, the government has pulled the pin on the NCEA.

The National Certificate of Educational Achievement will be gone by 2030, replaced by a basic literacy and numeracy award at Year 11, and the Certificate of Education and Advanced Certificate of Education at Years 11 and 12.

'Achieved', 'not achieved', 'merit' and 'excellence' will be replaced by marks out of 100 and letter grades A, B, C, D and E.

The new certificates would be standards-based, like the NCEA is, meaning every student passes if they demonstrate the required knowledge or skills, but they would have to study at least five complete subjects and pass four of them to get their certificate.

This year's Year 8s would be the first cohort through the new system, starting with the foundation award in 2028, which might look a lot like the current NCEA literacy and numeracy tests.

New Zealand Ditches Open-plan Classrooms

It was never going to work. To my certain knowledge, open-outcry, large open shared space classrooms have been tried before and in every instance, failed. Educational theorists just won't let it go. Children do not learn in these environments, so it's good to finally see some commonsense returning:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/567106/government-shuts-the-door-on-open-plan-classrooms

She said the big open spaces were too noisy and distracting for many children, and they would learn better in individual classrooms.

"My message to parents is that your children will be learning in single-cell classrooms that are modular so there will be open-and-close sliding doors that will allow for those classrooms to become bigger for when events require," she said.

"But when they are learning using explicit teaching, the new curriculum, the new maths books they will be learning in single-cell classrooms."

Teachers Rise

Teachers' Unions have been totally politicised and standing up for what is right is no longer of importance. Nicole Shanahan talks to a teacher at the sharp edge:

The Fall

It occurred to me today that I may get to see the fall of western civilisation. Incredible, I know, but it may happen. All the pre-conditions exist; a total lack of faith in institutions and our way of life, economic failure caused by corruption, political interference and gross incompetence, tyranny and the removal of free speech and self-expression, including the arts.

This is particularly evident in the developed English speaking world, but not limited to it. Across the OECD, it is not an exaggeration to say we may be heading for complete collapse, total system failure. Civil war is now openly contemplated, incredible.

But, what caused this and what is the solution? Lack of education is the cause. That's right, everything flows from that; feelings of hopelessness, despair, lack of initiative and a reluctance to work or take risks results from a lack of education. Furthermore, people who lack an education often no longer aspire, and if they do, they aspire to the wrong things, things that make no material difference to everyday lives. If you have an undereducated and ignorant populace, they can be ruled by tyrannical and self-serving rulers. 

I can hear people say, no, we need better healthcare. Oh really? What is the point in living longer, just to be slave to a system? 

I then hear people say, we need freedom of speech. OK, but if uneducated then the people don't know how to use that speech. If you want an example of what I'm talking about, check out comments on social media. People there are so ignorant of basic facts, and so unable to develop any kind of cogent argument, that night soon becomes day.

I believe, certain interests want to keep it this way, they do not want the people advanced enough so that they think for themselves. 

I often use the example of Catholic schools in largely Protestant countries. Faced with prejudice, Catholics simply started their own schools.

The solution to our current predicament is to get schools up and running, schools that will teach the lessons that need to be learnt. This is a combination of what to know and how to think, the two run together like hand in glove. Once you have a general level of accomplishment, things will happen as the next generation will demand change, or they'll simply take control and make it happen. 

This is what they're Teaching Children in British Schools

A young woman talks total sense. It is generally advantageous to have more than one language or culture.

 

Katharine Birbalsingh: Epic Rant

Almost as good as the bloke on the Underground in London back during lockdowns and all that silly mask wearing:

What they did to Education

Oh dear, New Zealand, what have you done? Reading this I almost cried. New Zealand's education system has been destroyed. Ministry of Education, principals, boards of trustees, hang your heads in shame. 

https://thebfd.co.nz/2022/09/03/letter-from-a-mandated-teacher/

Some days it is just painful.

It’s tough to get out of bed, to pretend to my kids that everything is OK, and that our country is a safe and fair place to live. I cannot count the times when I have completely melted down in the last ten months, while driving alone so that they can’t see the heartbreak I feel – the broken heart that I don’t want them to see.

<snip>

Instead, we had principals, colleagues and our unions pressuring us to make us follow – or else suffer the consequences. In staffrooms around the country, a line had been drawn. If you did not roll up your sleeve, you were branded an anti-vaxxer, a threat to the students and staff, and someone who shouldn’t be an educator.

The mandate also pulled students into this division when teachers (people in positions of power) spewed their rhetoric about the unvaxxed and how dangerous they were. My heart shattered when I had a student approach me and laugh, cruelly, while saying that I would die from Covid. It seemed like all compassion and kindness had been wiped out, and at that moment it became clear we were in a two-tiered society.

<snip>

In effect, it was now unlawful for us to step foot on the property. We could be arrested and fined. Upstanding citizens who had never done anything illegal, who had cared deeply for our young students, who had dedicated years of service to teaching and helping Kiwi children to be set up for good and solid life paths, were suddenly treated like criminals. Unable to even have contact with the students into whose education we had put our hearts and souls, and years of dedication.

<snip>

Fast-forward to now. For those lucky enough to have their jobs back, or those who have been given a lesser role, such as babysitting/relief (at a much lower pay rate), they now find in the staff rooms that people who took the jab barely acknowledge what happened. They certainly don’t acknowledge the pain they have caused to their innocent fellow Kiwis. They don’t acknowledge that those of us who were thrown out like garbage, actually needed someone from our former school to call up and ask if we were OK. We needed them to stand up for our shared humanity, and our shared and sacred Human Rights.

NZ: Education Shake-up

Finally, an admission that Tomorrow's Schools was a disaster. That's the way I read the proposed changes to the way schools in New Zealand are organised.

Read about it here: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12172927

What is proposed is essentially reinventing the wheel, putting in place the framework that existed before Labour destroyed education in NZ. I note the media are avoiding attaching blame. They're such suck-ups.

However, I'm not convinced scrapping Intermediate schools is a good idea. Many Intermediates do an amazing job. Likewise, year 1 through 8 primary schools already exist and they're often fine too. Where things could go badly wrong is having year 1 through 13 at the one school in urban areas. That's fine in Area Schools in the rural areas but it's misguided to allow it in urban areas. There are some schools already set up like this, we are yet to see if they work. I'm not holding my breath.

It comes down to how these changes are implemented. Given Labour's poor record on Education, I remain doubtful.

Teacher Shortage New Zealand

Well it's happened, New Zealand has finally reached the crisis I've been pointing out would arrive sooner rather than later. The solution is not just more pay, though that would help. To address the issue it has to be accepted that everyone is to blame; teachers, school management and the government.

What went wrong? The main problem is with the way teaching is structured; teachers are paid more the less classroom teaching they do. Correct this imbalance and you're halfway there. Then you pay more for teachers who teach and not so much for teachers who manage, and open up management positions to a wider pool of candidates, allowing other management professionals a pathway into those jobs.

And finally, take Teach First NZ across the whole country. Make it possible for suitably qualified individuals to cross into teaching without needing to spend a year at teachers' college.

Snob's Guide to New Zealand

I've written a useful guide to New Zealand, out now in Paperback and on Kindle. This book will need to be read by anyone interested in a move to New Zealand. It reveals how Kiwis think and from a snob's perspective what are the best schools, cities, cool places?

It goes deeper than you find with most guides. What other guides do is gloss over things or they describe only how to do something. They don't contain criticism, or they're too stale. What Snob's Guide to New Zealand does is assume you know how to do things, such as filling in forms. But what you really need to know is; what will you experience and who will you come up against?

But this book isn't just a guide, it will also be valuable for Kiwis too. From this book they can measure where they're at, where they're going, and how to get there. It raises important issues only occasionally addressed in New Zealand.

What are the best schools and universities? Which cities are best? This is a no holds barred type of approach the reader will find invaluable.

Here is the link to the Paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1727804147

Snob's Guide on Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J9XRCWK

Snob's Guide to New Zealand is indispensable to anyone looking at a move Downunder, or for the locals who want to know how to get ahead in their own country.

Universities

“There is a strict pecking order…Dispense with all international rankings as they’re meaningless.”

Energy

“…the Tesla owner and the ordinary guy in his Nissan Leaf are at war with poor people.”

New Zealand Wars

“The history of these conflicts is one where Maori won all the battles but lost the wars.”

NCEA Review

I see from the latest announcement that NCEA is going in the opposite direction to the one I suggest. The proposal is to do away with exams at the Year 11 (5th Form) level. Oh dear, that would be bad. I agree with the Auckland Grammar head when he says "We are going to be going into a deep, dark place..."

This is not going to end well folks.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12059594

New Zealand Education Crisis

The new Labour government of New Zealand is owned by teachers, nurses and social workers. That said, teachers in NZ have been having a lot to say; they want more money.

Fine, give them more money. But along with that extra pay do the following to avert the crisis and have NZ rising in the rankings again. Failure to do these things will mean collapse of the education system. That's right, collapse, and by that I mean widespread illiteracy and innumeracy or worse, a failure to know how to think.

The first step would be to merge the Education Council, Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office into one agency under the one roof. And give it teeth.

Then when that's done, make all teachers subject to objective and peer assessment. This would be done by ensuring that new teachers pass exams. Then while teaching they must conduct research and publish those papers. These results would determine rates of pay. Think this is too tough? What about accountants and lawyers? They're subject to professional examinations and when on the job they must function in certain ways to get the money. If teaching is a profession, why are they not subject to similar rigour?

Then pay more to teachers who stay in the classroom, and less to those who leave the classroom to administer. The flaw in the NZ system is it provides strong incentives for teachers to not do any teaching. To advance within teaching, teachers must get out of the classroom. Stop that happening.

Then scrap all school boards of trustees. Instead have schools run in groups managed by asset managers on a regional level, the board for which may be elected, but having each and every school with its own elected board of trustees is a nonsense. In effect it hands the day to day operation of schools to teachers. Teachers teach, they're not facilities managers.

Then lastly, bring back the three hour exam for most subjects. Replace the current NCEA system. I'd describe NCEA as delivering curriculum in a modular fashion. The problem with modular snippets is the student does not learn a subject end-to-end. Why have a student assessed on, say, 25% of the subject at hand before half way through the course? Until the student knows how all the parts fit together, they cannot be reliably assessed. The current assessment model disadvantages slow learners, those that may take all year to know a subject. What NCEA does is deliver failure early, and hence a large number switch off. It's the current NCEA system that promotes failure. This is hard to understand and denied by NCEA promoting apologists but this is the reality and the government has got to realise that NCEA does not work.

Oh and just in case you missed it, what I'm saying needs to be done is a re-creation of the Department of Education, Boards of Education and School Certificate. That was before Labour wrecked education with its Tomorrows Schools of the late 1980's, early 1990's, followed by more reform which effectively threw the baby out with the bathwater. From then on it was all downhill.

Labour Announce Education Shake-up

Okay so New Zealand has a new coalition government, led by Labour. It was needed, a change of government that is, and NZ clearly voted for change despite what National say when bleating about their defeat. A lot of good to talk about in the change; we'll get investment in construction, regional development, primary industry as that's where a lot of Labour voters are. All good.

But the not-so-good we can see starting to happen already. Labour, this may come as a shock so I hope you're sitting down when you read this, are owned by teachers. That's right, teachers in schools own the party that now runs the country.

So they're going to make changes. This could be good or it could be really bad and I'm picking really bad as it's the fox being put in charge of the hen house. Teachers are a lazy bunch you see. If they weren't lazy then they wouldn't be teachers, they'd be doing something that involved hard work (stop right there, I used to be teacher, don't tell me it's hard work, just don't, I stopped teaching to do something that was difficult). Teachers are necessary, very necessary but they're not rocket scientists. If they were rocket scientists then they'd be building rockets but they're not, so they're not.

What will happen is more control being put in the hands of teachers, and what you'll get is even less teaching. The new age of the illiterate and innumerate is about the dawn on the good people of NZ and they don't even know it. I'm just glad my children dodged this bullet.

I've written about this before, you can check some of my posts out here:

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

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

http://kenhorlor.blogspot.com/2016/05/more-nz-education-and-bryan-bruce.html

Guns in Schools

Nanny State again in New Zealand, now guns in schools are a no go.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/93425398/education-minister-to-shut-down-guns-in-schools-after-army-gave-rifles-to-children

I really enjoyed my time using guns at school. I learnt a lot about them and that comes in handy today. Having the army turn up is even better.

If you agree I suggest you write to the Minister of Education, Nikki Kaye telling her so, no stamp required if posted within New Zealand. Tell National to pull their heads in and stop being so pathetic.

NZ School Funding: Predictive Risk Modelling

New Zealand society is about to change forever, it will mean an end to the 'give everyone a fair go' Kiwi concept and a new darker future where Kiwis will be ranked according to their familial surroundings and social status. What I'm talking about is Predictive Risk Modelling and linking that to funding of NZ schools. >>Link explaining the issue here<<

Why is this a bad idea? It stigmatises. Consider a child with no criminal record, doing okay at school, well behaved, gets along with others. But she comes from a broken home, father is in jail and a brother in jail as well. Mother was raped in the past, sister the victim of sex abuse. That child who is doing okay will be tagged a risk. Extra funding is made available to any school that takes her. The child carries a code that attracts funding and extra attention. But why?  She is not a victim apart from being in a difficult family, and has committed no crime.

The incompetent Prime Minister of NZ, Simon English is behind this. He hates the poor and wants to see all disadvantaged persecuted. NZ is on a very slippery slope, one where some will be tagged for life, while others receive a free pass. It is a very dangerous precedent.

Stop obsessing over whether NZ has surpluses and instead work toward fully funding all schools in NZ, so parents don't have to put their hands in their pockets. That'd solve the issue. Educate, educate and then educate some more. Stop with this find someone to blame nonsense and rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Teach First NZ

The path into teaching in New Zealand can be a difficult one if you've graduated yet gone on to work in another industry. Changing direction can be next to impossible as a Graduate Diploma is needed and that means more expense and leaving work; you give up your salary to train for a year.

However there is now another way to becoming fully qualified and that is to enrol in the Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching (Secondary) from the University of Auckland. This course is run over two years in conjunction with Teach First NZ which is a not-for-profit organisation helping end educational inequality.

The good part of this is the trainee gets paid a full-time salary while being trained. After an initial eight week intensive, the trainee goes to work in a school and teaches 60% of a full load. That leaves the rest of the time to do the course work and to be tutored.

The catch is this offer is only extended to candidates who are qualified to teach one or more of the following: English, Mathematics/Statistics, Chemistry, Physics, Te Reo Māori, General Science or IT. Those accepted for the course must be prepared to teach disadvantaged pupils in lower decile schools. These are in Auckland and Northland and no other areas of New Zealand as yet.

Links: https://www.teachnz.govt.nz/thinking-of-teaching/qualifications-information-for-2017/view/87

http://teachfirstnz.org/programme/who-we-look-for

If you're looking to make the switch and wondered how, this is the best option IMO. Don't be put off by the prospect of teaching in poorer areas, the rewards as a teacher are greater and the teachers are usually very committed so you get a more collegial environment. There are challenges but if you make it through, you'd be a great teacher.

When it comes down to what salary level you'd be on, that is a function of two things; the level of educational qualification and what educationally relevant experience you've already received. You don't necessarily start at the bottom of the scale as a graduate; a PhD starts at the top, Masters next down, Bachelors is in the middle somewhere. The big benefit of this scheme is you get paid while training, unlike other graduates who usually take on student loans while attaining the entry qualification (usually the Graduate Diploma in Teaching).