Sector Groups Join for Better Tech Curriculum

4 April 2007

Sector Groups Join Forces for Better Technology Curriculum

Five sector groups with an interest in improving technology education – the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA), the Education Forum, the Industry Training Federation, Business New Zealand and the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs – have joined forces to call for a rethink of the proposed draft technology curriculum being developed by the Ministry of Education.

“Technology teaching in New Zealand schools is in crisis. Unless its fundamental weaknesses – low status in schools, inadequate resourcing, staff recruitment difficulties and lack of a practical focus – are addressed, technology teaching will continue to spiral downward, with flow-on negative effects for the country’s skill development and competitiveness, said Education Forum chairman Byron Bentley.

The decision by the five sector groups to band together arose out of a meeting to discuss this issue held recently between representatives from the PPTA and the Education Forum.

The group will jointly be writing to the chair of Parliament’s Education and Science Committee outlining its concerns with the technology curriculum and seeking a more comprehensive examination of ways of improving technology teaching in New Zealand.

“The fact that groups as diverse as the Education Forum and the PPTA are calling for action indicates just how widespread concerns about the technology curriculum are,” Penney Dunckley, graphics teacher and PPTA Executive member for Southland, said.

“New Zealand faces persistent and severe skill shortages across a range of occupations – and particularly trades. In many cases, the roots of those shortages lie in a technology curriculum that does not adequately support teachers and is not delivering to students, Mr Bentley said.

“If the Government is serious about developing a knowledge economy, it will move with some urgency to address these concerns,” he said.

ENDS

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