Nau mai haere mai!

We have reached half way through Term Three in this crazy year that continues to be punctuated by Covid 19.

Yesterday, under advice from the Director of Education for the Otago/Southland region, we had to postpone our Formal. While this is highly frustrating for all involved, none less than the formal committee and their families, it was a necessary step to keep us inline with the requirements from our government to keep Covid 19 out of our communities. After consultation with the formal committee members, students, catering, entertainment and the photographer we have landed on the 11th of September for the postponement date (a change from the 18th in earlier communication). Let us hope the alert level will be moved to  Alert Level 1 next week.

Yesterday I had the chance to discuss the future of education and how different it should be considering our ever changing society. With the rapidly evolving technological  revolution we are seeing, coupled with the changing world since Covid 19, it has highlighted/accelerated this need for change.

A number of people have lost their jobs and many are turning to an online world to conduct their business. Companies are being forced into being more agile and require their staff to be able to move quickly and change skill sets in short time frames.

The current model of education is akin to the factory model of education. The factory model of education reflects the idea that schools were originally built to train future factory workers during the industrial revolution. The belief was "the back door of the school leads to the front door of the factory", and students should only be taught the essential skills required to become a successful factory worker. Students were not placed into groups based on their abilities, but rather their chronological age. This has a stifling effect that hinders the characteristics required of our young to be successful in the 21st century.

What are these characteristics? 

While there are many these can be summarised into the 4 C's of education.

Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Communication. 

As we reflect on our programmes of work, and the way these are delivered, we must consider these four areas. Are we offering enough of an opportunity for our students to develop these areas to make them employable or entrepreneurial enough to work for themselves?

We are currently exploring different ways to make school more relevant to our students, exciting for our teachers to facilitate, and most importantly prepares them for our unknown future.

Nga mihi nui.

Marcus Cooper

Principal 

East Otago High School