Erica Stanford’s solutions to the problems posed by her inner circle have positive aspects …

But they are not the highest priority problems.

I have a son who is a professional fire-fighter. I would imagine that they most basic advice they receive is to point the hose at the fire.

Stanford has done almost nothing on what all data and research show to be the most important aspects for the education of our children and young people. There is barely any water going on the flames.

These are the absolute key areas for the contribution of education towards our future.

1. How to support parenting so that the vast majority of 5 year olds arrive at school ready to fully engage and with the basics of a love of learning, good behaviours, as well as numeracy and literacy in place. This includes parents reading to their children and being fully informed of key aspects of development from conception until 5 years old (at least).
   
2. Massively improving school attendance. She has allocated just 0.7 of 1% of VOTE education to improving this aspect – that remains in deep crises.
   
3. How to significantly close the gaps between those who achieve – and those who don’t (concentrated among poorer families, Maori and Pasifika). 2024 school leavers data shows that the proportion of school leavers with no qualifications has risen to 16% for all ethnicities. This is the worst in a decade and it well-and-truly under her watch. It is now 28% for Maori youth. Appalling – but I do not see a single ounce of effort from Stanford on this. Let this statistic land … 28% of Maori youth are leaving school with no qualification. Will the proposed qualifications changes improve this? What are the future consequences?
   
4. Improving the quality of outcomes of every high school. There is actually some low hanging fruit here with an easy to implement programme. NZ only has 460 high schools. To have every one of them create a 5 year improvement plan for outcomes – aims and how to achieve them – is easy and can be highly effective. I have already been working with some schools on this in a private capacity.
   
5. Improving the quality of teachers. While there has been some emphasis on this – the impact of poorly consulted curriculum changes, and barely consulted qualifications changes, will have massive work conditions implications for teachers (i.e. chaos). While teachers remain in a collective contract that restricts the ability to reward high contributors – the prospect for true change remains low.
   
6. The huge hand-brake of a massive and inept Ministry of Education has barely been challenged by Stanford. National/ACT promised to reduce the employment numbers in the Ministry to 2,700 (pre-Hipkins) but it remains near 4,000. Even one of Stanford’s best friends, Tim O’Connor of Auckland Grammar – recently stated that the Ministry serves little purpose and should be disestablished. Stanford has not even been able to appoint a new Secretary for Education – nearly a year after the previous one left.

As someone who fully evaluates the outcomes of our education system each year … the current changes will do nothing to halt the decline – except that students from high performing schools, and privileged demographics, will have a better qualification to get themselves into international study.

Alwyn Poole
alwyn.poole@gmail.com
alwynpoole.substack.com
www.linkedin.com/in/alwyn-poole-16b02151/

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