National Education Policy Puts Neurodiverse At Risk, Says DFNZ

National’s new education policy puts neurodiverse students further at risk for failure in the classroom, according to Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand.

The policy, released yesterday, centres on four key requirements for ‘Teaching The Basics Brilliantly’; an hour each on reading, writing and maths every day; minimum requirements for what schools must teach every year in reading, writing, maths and science; regular standardised assessment and clear reporting to parents; and better training and more tools to support teachers.

Guy Pope-Mayell, Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand Chair of Trustees, says two of these requirements clearly disadvantage neurodiverse students.

“There is no doubt the education system is in crisis, with under-resourced and underpaid teachers and we applaud National for taking a stand on this.

“However, taking an old school standardised approach to change will only perpetuate discrimination for the neurodiverse. National’s policy has some handy soundbites to catch votes, but is silent on the potential impacts on upwards of 20% of children who have some form of neurodiversity,” Pope-Mayell says.

“One hour each of reading and writing, and one hour of maths is a lofty goal but without appropriate support for neurodiverse students it’s tantamount to torture, particularly for those with dyslexia or dyscalculia. This sort of stringent mandate sets them up for further failure in the classroom, he says.

‘In this situation, standardised assessment becomes another punitive tool that simply measures failure.”

National’s policy has one just one mention of vulnerable children, saying that inconsistency between how much time different schools spend teaching the basics ‘embeds inequalities that disadvantage the most vulnerable children’.

Pope-Mayell says it’s not just about teaching the basics, but about ensuring neurodiverse children are supported with appropriate interventions and accommodations to learn these, and ensuring teachers are equipped to recognise and respond to the neurodiverse.

National’s policy does include better training and more tools for teachers, but DFNZ says that needs to be unpacked to ensure it takes into account neurodiverse students.

“Teachers currently receive little to no training on neurodiversity. And neurodiverse tendencies such as being uncomfortable with eye contact, hypersensitive in stressful situations and difficulties processing information can often be misunderstood as ‘behaving badly’,” Pope-Mayell says.

“All too often we see students excluded from classrooms because teachers misinterpret their behaviour or label them disruptive. Failure to recognise and properly support neurodiverse students with interventions from structured literacy programmes through to adjustments in teaching style and classroom layout can lead to disengagement and exclusion, or self-exclusion in the form of truancy,” he says.

“From the early school years, inequities in accessing education amount of discrimination. And discrimination can cause disengagement and disenfranchisement – leading to alienation, mental health issues, acting out, truancy and crime.

“There are really deep systemic issues at play here. National says it will have more to say on education in the lead up to the election. And we’d be looking to see them address these issues of accessibility and equity for the neurodiverse,” Pope-Mayell says.

ABOUT DFNZ

DFNZ, established in 2006, is the country’s foremost lobby group for dyslexia and neurodiversity. DFNZ has built its reputation on successful advocacy and action and has become the foremost lobby group in this area. From lobbying the Government for dyslexia to be officially recognised, achieved in 2007, through to working closely with the Government on the inclusive education agenda and raising the Youth Court age, the landscape for neurodiversities has been fundamentally changed.

In 2016, DFNZ convened a landmark Neurodisabilities Forum to explore vulnerability in the justice system. In 2020, it hosted the Neurodiversity Leadership Forum focused on recognising the strengths of diverse brains in the workplace. And in 2021, DFNZ activated a further piece of the advocacy landscape – wellbeing, with the family journey at the heart of this.

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