Education Again Driven By Those Who Think They Know All!

The arrogance of Wellington who seem to think they know much more about educating children than we who live in the real world do, knows no bounds.. Once again, there's been zero consultation with the wider sector. We just again are done too!

Brendan Morrissey, President of Te Tai Tokerau Principals, in response to the cuts to supporting staff in Education and Oranga Tamariki, is adamant that the politicians in their “Ivory towers of Power”, have shown little true inclination to acknowledge all the work schools have done and are continuing to do, to help mitigate the negative aspects of child poverty and social inequality for children.

He says, “The true cost of the extra work, that will now be foisted upon us, has yet to be factored into our school operations and staffing budgets. It appears to be a case of foisting more and more on teachers and Principals, just so politicians can sit on their backsides with untold consultants and support staff to help them, racing through change after change, in order to simply achieve some self-imposed 100 day disaster.”

Brendan continued, “It’s not just this lot, successive governments have failed to do this adequately. We are still even awaiting the full implementation of the Equity Index, which fully funded, would be of some help to most Te Tai Tokerau Schools”.

It is a sad fact that no tangible recognition has been given to the profession for helping governments to rectify this issue. Instead, we get blame piled on us for not teaching enough and continually told that what we are doing is not good enough either.

No wonder people are leaving the profession and it is no wonder that not many are looking to get into the

profession anymore. We are fed up to the back teeth with the continuous negative cycle every couple of years, brought about by the latest politicians dream!

Our education system pathway resembles a "ping-pong match" where successive governments firstly go about undoing what the previous government did and then they send education off in a different direction.

Each time there is a change of government, we go through the same process again, never really going anywhere. If our politicians really want to do something good, they should form a cross-party/sector agreement that will last for at least 10 years.

If those at the top who came up with these "brilliant" ideas took responsibility when they fail, and had to endure the public blaming and shaming they lump upon schools and teachers, , maybe they'd think twice about the next "brilliant idea" they want to roll out.

Look at the failures over the last ten or so years. E.g... National Standards, the Numeracy Project, Charter Schools, the total failure to provide even minimal support for Special Education/Trauma Practice, and the same with Cross Sector Agency help, and yet who wears the blame for the state of our education System?

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