QPEC Open Letter to Peter Hughes, Secretary of Education

QPEC Open Letter to Peter Hughes, Secretary of Education

Dear Mr Hughes,

On behalf of the Quality Public Education Coalition (“QPEC”) I am writing to introduce our organisation and express our desire to participate actively in the education policy debate in New Zealand.

QPEC is a broadly based incorporated society involving parents, teachers, students and researchers which sees high quality public education as critical to the social and educational development of our community. QPEC is a voluntary organisation which is not affiliated to any political party, church group or trade union. QPEC supports or opposes ideas or developments on the basis of their effects on the education of all people in our community.

As a strong advocate for a quality public education system, QPEC is vitally interested in how you see your role and what you believe your legacy may be. We were encouraged by the comment you made in your interview with Kathryn Ryan on Radio New Zealand recently, that you have reached agreement with the Minister on the need to clarify your role and job purpose.

But QPEC feels that the nature of your role and how you set your objectives must depend heavily on what type and structure of education system is being pursued and what that system is really aiming to achieve.

One of your most well-known predecessors, Clarence Beeby, worked with Peter Fraser to develop this statement, which was to become his defining hallmark:

“The government’s objective, broadly expressed, is that every child, whatever his level of ability, whether he be rich or poor, whether he live in town or country, has a right, as a citizen, to a free education of the kind for which he is best fitted and to the fullest extent of his powers.”

In many ways, the New Zealand education system has “lost its way”, over the past two decades, since the change to the “Tomorrow’s Schools” system of self-governing schools, inspired by the Treasury ideology of that time.

This was an early example of the reform movement that has since spread more widely and is now commonly known as GERM, or the Global Education Reform Movement, as christened by Finnish education leader Pasi Sahlberg.

The degree to which a government accepts the “reform agenda” is a major factor influencing how they see the role of government in education. So, without an agreed understanding of the sense of direction and purpose that should drive the education system, we cannot deal effectively with the issues and challenges that the system faces.

QPEC sees several significant issues confronting the education system at present:
1. The undermining of the concept of public education and the critical role a public education system plays in a democratic society;
2. The decline of the role of evidence and good quality research, in a New Zealand context, of what works best, and, just as importantly, what doesn’t work;
3. The unrelenting rise of the influence of the media and the tendency for policy to be developed based on clichés and sound bites rather than on genuine evidence;
4. The influence of Treasury on education policy advice matters and the lack of scrutiny this advice receives;
5. The relentless undermining of the status of the teaching profession, including so many initiatives masquerading under the banner of “Quality Teaching”;
6. The need to form a true and fair view of student achievement, both in a domestic and international context, based on credible data arising from valid and reliable assessment tools, across the full curriculum, across year levels and over time;
7. The lack of an honest acknowledgement of the major influence of family background, living conditions and other “out of school” factors on student achievement;
8. The failure to fully understand the consequences of flawed policy development and implementation and the real risk of the unintended consequences that so often arise.

Cathy Wylie, in her book “Vital Connections”, makes the observation that the current New Zealand schooling system cannot meet the expectations placed on it. Reviewing the current system and seeking a better approach to making self-governing schools work better would be a major but ideal task for you to undertake.

But who you call upon for expert advice and support will also be critical to how you carry out your role. Wylie makes a salient point in her book, when she described a collection of articles written on secondary education in 1976, and noted that a number of Departmental (as they were then) staff joined academics in proposing and critiquing policy (see p. 65):

“I cannot conceive of such an inclusion of government officials in a comparable volume [Directions in New Zealand Secondary Education, 1976] now, or their being able to write such reflective papers. Few government officials in the high-level jobs held by these writers now have similar in-depth educational knowledge. They cannot be as frank these days, nor so invitational of debate. They operate within a less open system, where their prime accountability is to their Minister and that Minister’s public reputation.”

Professor Robin Alexander, who led the Cambridge Primary Review in England, delivered an outstanding address in Melbourne titled: “Success, Amnesia and Collateral Damage in systemic education reform”. One of his conclusions, after conducting the largest independent review of primary education ever undertaken in England, was that “Policy has become the problem”.

Broadening the education policy debate and re-emphasising the importance of evidence and research are issues of vital interest to QPEC. QPEC has a number of strengths, in particular the quality and experience of our core membership and our ability to engage with the wider education sector, and we look forward to contributing rigorously to this debate.

Issued by:
Bill Courtney, National Chairperson, Quality Public Education Coalition (“QPEC”)
22 November 2013

ENDS

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