PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
E ngaki ana a mua, e tōtō mai ana a muri
'First clear the weeds then plant.'
Our whakataukī this week is from Dr Hinemoa Elder’s book, ‘Aroha’ She encourages us to clear out the detritus in our minds, reflect on what is most important and what you want to contribute to the world. I encourage you to use this holiday break to schedule in some time for a little mind-weeding.
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Kia ora e te whanau,
As we reach the last week of term one, I want to say well done to everyone.
On top of the usual challenges you meet every day in your schools, you have also been faced with new government policies and some new frustrations. The NZPF executive critiques any government policies against a set of six principles which were constructed with the Regional Presidents last year. These give us a moral base on which to form our position on new policies.
The cell phones away policy has not created undue problems for most of you and many already had your own school policies to keep cell phones away during class time. Naturally exemptions are necessary and the Minister has sensibly agreed with that. NZPF has had very little feedback that conflicts with this policy. Ka pai.
The one hour a day of reading, writing and maths policy, on its own, is also not a problem, but how that policy will be monitored and how these subjects will be assessed, have concerned many of you. No decision has yet been made on assessment, although we are aware the Minister favours a single assessment tool for all. We are clear that we do not want any assessment data used as a performance measure of schools or used to rank schools. I am advocating for the use of sampling to produce a national education system performance measure. The Minister is aware of our position and does not oppose a national sampling monitoring system. See Pou Rua below for more discussion on assessment.
NZPF has long held the belief that a quality public education system is the most democratic way to deliver education to all and therefore does not favour our public schools converting to publicly funded private Charter Schools. In 2011, Charter Schools were introduced to Aotearoa New Zealand and removed from legislation in 2017. They were not obliged to follow the national curriculum, were not open to the scrutiny of the Official Information Act, and were not required to employ qualified teachers. We do not yet know why the Associate Minister is keen to establish Charter Schools again, aside from offering further choice and flexibility, or whether the Charter Schools that he envisages would exist under the same rules as the 2011 Charter Schools.
The policy to reduce funding for Ka Ora Ka Ako (lunch in schools) by 50% has landed badly and you will be aware of the public responses to this. NZPF issued a press release and I have spoken extensively to the media condemning this move. We know from principals across the motu that lunches allow our tamariki to learn and to take them away is completely at odds with trying to raise attendance and achievement.
Shortly, the Ministry will be announcing attendance data for term 4 2023. Many of you have worked very hard at lifting attendance with local campaigns and leaning on existing relationships with your communities to support families to get their children back to school. I congratulate you on this work and don’t doubt that by the end of term one this year, you will have increased your attendance rates further. I have publicly stated that the policy of fining the caregivers of some of our most vulnerable young people for low attendance, is barbaric and would sever the critical relationships we have with these whanau. The Minister has since said that he would not fine parents who could not pay, only those who could pay.
To sum this term up - We need to listen attentively and discern whether a political narrative is driven by a specific agenda or grounded in evidence, with a focus on children and a realistic understanding of our circumstances. Education is inherently about change, prompting me to always ask the question: What purpose does this policy serve and will it lead to improved educational outcomes for our young people?
While the Government has made strides in certain areas, improvements are still needed in the process, and we are willing to assist them in achieving our shared goal - an equitable, inclusive, culturally appropriate and high quality education system.
NZPF Moot 2024
My special thanks to over a hundred regional presidents who attended our Moot last month. As always, your contributions to debate are what guide the NZPF executive position on the issues confronting us. Thank you for your wise and considered responses on the new government policies and other issues that continue to challenge us. This year our theme was Challenges and Opportunities and your feedback gives us plenty of opportunities to work on.
One of the most prevalent was to advocate for change in the way the Government develops education policies. Last year, through our political manifesto, we called for a cross-party coalition for education, so that we can have long-term plans for education that are not changed every time we have a change of government. NZPF will continue to advocate for a cross-party coalition, not just with the current government, but with all political parties.
Since our Moot there has been progress with Minister Hon. Erica Stanford signaling that she has spoken to Labour’s Jan Tinetti (former principal and Minister of Education) to work collaboratively on topics such as the curriculum and assessment framework. We are heartened to finally see cross-party collaboration in this way and are hopeful that this will be the beginnings of the development of a long term education strategy.
Another opportunity raised at Moot was to use assessment mechanisms that are equitable and fit for purpose. This would require a choice of tools so that the learning of each student can be fairly assessed, irrespective of the student’s ability or disability.
The importance of a balanced curriculum was also noted, so that schools do not (as happened under national standards) develop a narrow focus on reading, writing and maths. The regional presidents also called for an opportunity to influence the design of a balanced curriculum.
The Presidents raised the issue of the equity pay gap between secondary and primary school principals, noting that there was an opportunity to close the gap and unify our sector.
PLD provision was a further equity challenge. Presidents suggested more online options and using sabbatical opportunities for principals to share their expertise with others. Principal PLD is already a focus for NZPF as part of our leadership work currently underway, and we welcome these contributions.
You can read a full report on the Moot in our Term 2 NZ Principal magazine, due out in June. As always, we invited the Minister of Education to speak. Unfortunately she was attending another event in Gisborne that day, but did provide a pre-recorded speech including answers to some questions which we sent her. You can access the recording here. You can also access the full text of my address to the Moot here.
Ngā Mihi,
Leanne