Respect for teachers key to Finnish success

Respect for teachers key to Finnish success

Finland’s pre-eminent educational thinker Dr Pasi Sahlberg will share the secrets to his country’s phenomenal educational success at PPTA’s annual conference tomorrow.

Drawing on years of analysis of Finland’s high achieving public education system Sahlberg places teachers squarely at the centre of its success, a move PPTA president Robin Duff would like to see replicated in New Zealand.

“This is a country where teachers are as highly regarded as doctors, lawyers and business people in terms of the importance of the work they do. Education is a high government priority, almost everyone participates, there is widespread equity and good results throughout society,” Duff said.

“With the present political climate dominated by decentralisation, mindless competition and selling off state assets, Pasi Sahlberg’s work is a breath of fresh air,” he said.

Sahlberg will deliver his keynote speech at 2.30pm at the Brentwood Hotel in Kilbirnie Wellington. This will be followed at 3.35pm by a cross-party panel discussion, The Possibilities for Political Consensus in New Zealand.

Panel members will include Sahlberg, Nanaia Mahuta (Labour), Catherine Delahunty (Greens), Tracey Martin (New Zealand First) and John Minto (Mana).

“The role of politicians was critical to Finland’s success which is why it is so important for opposition party education spokespeople to talk about how they might work together for the betterment, not the privatisation, of New Zealand education,” Duff said.

Sahlberg’s presentation will draw on research undertaken while completing his latest book Finnish Lessons - a history of how Finland reformed its public education system and achieved success without implementing competition, privatisation and test-based accountability.

Duff hopes Sahlberg’s presence will make an impression on a government whose education policies seem to point towards the antithesis of Finnish reforms. “Both our government and minister of education need to discover more about what it takes to develop, and be part of, a system that values educators, equips them adequately for the job and produces the best student outcomes in the world,” he said.

Sahlberg’s speech will be webstreamed live from www.ppta.org.nz

You can follow us on Twitter using the hashtag #pptaconf and the full conference timetable can be found at: http://www.ppta.org.nz/index.php/events/annual-conference

ENDS

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